Leadership styles and decision-making styles in an Indonesian school context

Abstract

School leadership has been well researched in developed countries. However, in Asia, particularly in Indonesia, school leadership has not been well explored. Using survey data from a sample of 475 teachers in six Lampung school districts, this paper examines the relationships between school principal leadership styles and school principal decision-making styles in an Indonesian school context. Findings are that most of the relationships between school principal leadership styles and school principal decision-making styles are significant. These findings suggest that teachers perceive that principals should exhibit much more transformational leadership style and rational decision-making style but avoid laissez-faire leadership style and avoidant decision-making style.

Keywords:

• leadership
• decision-making
• schools
• principals
• teachers
• Indonesia

Acknowledgements

Our special thanks go to the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on this paper. We would also like to thank our colleagues for commenting on earlier drafts and Sharon Read for copyediting.

Funding

This study was funded by Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture, the Republic of Indonesia and James Cook University, Australia.

Notes on contributors

Hasan Hariri is a recent Ph.D. graduate in Management, School of Business, James Cook University, Australia, and is currently working at University of Lampung (Unila), Bandar Lampung, Indonesia. His current research interests include leadership, school leadership and management, decision-making and job satisfaction.

Richard Monypenny is Adjunct Associate Professor in Economics, School of Business, James Cook University, Australia. His current research interests include successful regional development, systems thinking, small group dynamics, collaboration and facilitating change.

Murray Prideaux is a Senior Lecturer in Management, School of Business, James Cook University, Australia.

Additional information

Funding

Funding:This study was funded by Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Culture, the Republic of Indonesia and James Cook University, Australia.