An Assessment Needs of Primary School Principals Transformational Leadership in Thua Thien Hue Province,Vietnam

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1 647 An Assessment Needs of Primary School Principals Transformational Leadership in Thua Thien Hue Province,Vietnam Nguyen Quang Ve, Master s degree candidate in Educational Administration (ASEAN Classroom Program) ; Sangkom Pumipuntu, Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Mahasarakham University, Thailand. Abstract The objective of this research is to identify the needs for the development of primary school principals transformational leadership in Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam. The total of the sample was 280 included 140 principals and 140 teachers who have at least 5 years working experiences of 140 primary school by using stratified random sampling techniques. A five-point rating scale questionnaire was designed based on four components of transformational leadership to measure the level of existing and desired situations of primary school principals. The Priority Needs Index was modified to measure the needs for the transformational leadership development of primary school principals. The findings showed that the existing level of primary school principals transformational leadership was rated highly, but lower than desired level. The highest existing level was Idealized influence, followed by Inspirational motivation, Individualized consideration and Intellectual stimulation. The highest desired level was Individualized consideration, followed by Intellectual stimulation, Idealized influence, and Inspirational motivation. The first priority ranking for the needs of transformational leadership development was Individualized consideration and Intellectual stimulation while Inspirational motivation and Idealized influence had the smallest priority needs index. The result of this research will be used as a fundamental basis for further study. Keywords: Transformational Leadership/ Primary School Principals/ Thua Thien Hue Province Introduction Education in the 21st century will develop in the context of fast and complex changes of the world. Thus, the school principals are expected to cope with a rapidly changing world of work to be effective at their schools (Lewis, Fandt & Goodman, 1998). For this reason, they require abilities such as being team-oriented, strong communicators, problem solvers, team players, change-makers, and transformational leaders. Many studies have been made to define the roles of leaders in organizations. In this regard, transformational leadership has been frequently studied in the leadership fields (Bass, 1998; Heck & Hallinger, 1999). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many studies were initiated by Leithwood and his colleagues have shown positive relationships between transformational leadership and various school and teacher organizational conditions (Anderson, 2008). Northouse (2001) defined transformational leadership in the simplest terms, is the ability to get people to want to improve, change, and be led. It involves assessing the

2 648 motives of associates, satisfying their needs, and valuing them. Besides, some studies claim that transformational leadership is the ability of a leader to increase commitment, capacity, and engagement in meeting goals of the organizational members (Bass & Avolio, 1997; Jung & Avolio, 2000; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2006; Marks & Printy, 2003). According to Hallinger (2003) transformational leadership models conceptualize leadership as an entity of the organization rather than the task of a single individual. In this context, Evers & Lakomski (1996) suggested that these models rely too heavily on the leader's transformational skills. It is claimed by many studies that transformational leadership behaviors have direct and indirect effects on the behavior of the followers, their psychological states and the performance in the organization (Leithwood, Jantzi & Steinbach, 1999; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2006; Moolenaar, Daly & Sleegers, 2010; Marks & Printy, 2003). It has influences on the commitment of the teachers to change in vision building, high performance expectations, developing consensus about group goals and intellectual stimulation, supportive leadership, communication, and personal recognition (Chew & Chan, 2008; Gronn, 1995; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2006; Leithwood et al., 2004). Transformational leadership is positively related to schools innovative climate and transformational leadership motivates associates to do more than they are expected in terms of extra effort and greater productivity (Bass, 1985; Bass & Avolio, 1994; Leithwood, Harris & Hopkins, 2008; Moolenaar, Daly & Sleegers, 2010), changed teacher practices, organizational learning (Leithwood et al., 2004; Geijsel et al., 2009; Silins, Mulford & Zarins, 2002), organizational commitment and extra effort for change (Yu, Leithwood & Jantzi, 2002; Geijsel, Sleegers, Leithwood & Jantzi, 2003), and collective teacher efficacy in a variety of international settings (Leithwood, Steinbach & Jantzi, 2002; Rafferty & Griffin, 2004) There are three basic functions of transformational leadership. Firstly, transformational leaders sincerely serve the followers' needs, empower and inspire them to achieve great success. Next, they charismatically lead, build a vision, instill trust, confidence and pride in working with them. Finally, transformational leaders offer followers of the same caliber as the leader through the intellectual stimulation (Castanheira & Costa, 2011). In this model, the functions of school as its own transforming agent and it becomes less bureaucratic. The school will be empowered as a collective unit instead of empowering selected individuals. Transformational leaders focus on capacity building for the purpose of organizational change (Bass & Avolio, 1994). They sharpen the skills of their subordinates and enhance their knowledge from their own experiences (Bennis & Nanus, 1997). Furthermore, Hall et al., (2008) assert that this approach can help school principals become excellent leaders. All these characteristics of transformational leadership in educational settings largely fall into four components comprised idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (Popper, Mayseless & Castelnovo, 2000). Firstly, Idealized influence is defined as considering the followers needs before their own personal needs, setting high standards of performance, and showing power and confidence. Second, Inspirational motivation refers to the ways of the leader to motivate and inspire the followers as sharing a vision, displaying

3 649 enthusiasm and optimism, communicating high expectations, and demonstrating commitment to the goals. Third, Intellectual stimulation refers to the leader s effort to help followers to be innovative and creative. Finally, individualized consideration is demonstrated when leaders pay attention to the developmental needs of followers and act as coach or mentor to develop their followers potential. These components create additive effect if managers combine these components to reach performance beyond expectations (Northouse, 2001). In order to make any school a better performing place, principals transformational leadership behaviors become more important because they are the dynamics of change for the society in which they operate. However, how much of these characteristics of transformational leadership are demonstrated by school principals during their daily practices and what are their desired for the transformational leadership development. This research proposed to investigate the level of the existing situation and desired situation of transformational leadership and to identify the needs for the development of primary school principals transformational leadership in Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam. The result of this research may offer helpful information for the leaders, policy makers in Thua Thien Hue province in particular and Vietnam in general in designing the training system of them. Furthermore, the result of this research will be used as a fundamental basis for further study. Research objective To identify the needs for the development of primary school principals transformational leadership in TTH province, Vietnam. Population and Samples The population was 219 principals and 219 teachers who have at least 5 years working experiences of 219 primary schools in TTH province in academic year The total of the sample was 280 included 140 school principals and 140 teachers in the same primary schools. The number of samples gained by comparing total population to Krejcie and Morgan s table (Krejcie and Morgan, 1970) and sampling by using Stratified Random Sampling technique. Instruments The questionnaires were designed base on four components of transformational leadership by using a five - point rating scales to rate the level of existing situation included: 5= Very High ; 4= High ; 3= Medium ; 2= Low and 1= Very Low, and the level of desired situation included: 5 = Very Desirable ; 4= Desirable ; 3= Neutral ; 2= Undesirable ; and 1= Very Undesirable. Methodology The quantitative research method was used, the questionnaires were delivered to 280 respondents in which contain 39 items to investigate the level of existing and desired situations of primary school principals transformational leadership by using the hard copy and by . In addition, to assess the needs of primary school principals transformational leadership, the researcher used the calculation Mean of desired

4 650 situation level minus Mean of existing situation level and divided by Mean of existing situation level. The needs for transformational leadership development of the primary school principals were analyzed by modified Priority Needs Index (PNI modified ) (Wongwanich, 2005). The modified PNI analysis could reflect the needs of primary school principals transformational leadership to be developed. A high index represents high need, which is supposed to be more developed rather than a lower index. The transformational leadership element showing a high value of modified PNI would result in the higher priority of that transformational leadership element to be further developed. The transformational leadership that had modified PNI value of 0.30 or higher was considered critical and would be required to be improved urgently. The statistics as Mean and Standard Deviation were analyzed the data. Research Result 1) The results of the analysis level of the existing situation of primary school principals transformational leadership in TTH province were shown in table 1 Table 1: Mean, Standard Deviation level of the existing situation of primary school principals transformational leadership Items Transformational leadership Mean (X) Standard Deviation (S.D.) 1 Idealized influence Inspirational motivation Intellectual stimulation Individualized consideration Total According to table 1, the primary school principals transformational leadership were as a whole as a high level (X=3.68, S.D.=.80). When specifically considering ordering from the highest to lowest was the Idealized influence, followed by Inspirational motivation, Individualized consideration, and Intellectual stimulation. On the whole, this indicated that primary school principals in TTH province had good basic abilities in all transformational leadership areas. 2) The results of the analysis level of the desired situation of primary school principals transformational leadership in TTH province were shown in table 2 Table 2: Mean, Standard Deviation level of the desired situation of primary school principals transformational leadership Items Transformational leadership Mean (X) Standard Deviation (S.D.) 1 Idealized influence Inspirational motivation Intellectual stimulation Individualized consideration Total

5 651 The results in table 2 showed that the needs and aspirations of primary school principals in all transformational leadership areas very high (X=4.64, S.D.=.54). When specifically considering each area of mean scores was also very high, the highest were Individualized consideration, followed by Intellectual stimulation, Inspirational motivation, and Idealized influence. In short, those transformational leadership areas were very essential for the primary school principals success in TTH province. 3) The needs for the development of primary school principals transformational leadership in TTH province, Vietnam. The needs for transformational leadership development of the primary school principals were analyzed through PNI modified. The school principals and teachers assessed existing level of school principals of each transformational leadership area and perceived their desired level of transformational leadership. The results of the needs assessment were analyzed through PNI modified were shown in Table 3. Table 3: The difference between Mean of the existing and desired level of primary school principals transformational leadership Item s Transformational leadership Existing level (X) Desired level (X) PNI mod 1 Idealized influence Inspirational motivation Intellectual stimulation Individualized consideration Total According to table 3, Means for the assessment of the desired level of primary school principals transformational leadership in all areas were higher than the means for the assessment existing level. Individualized consideration was at highest priority ranking, followed by Intellectual stimulation, Inspirational motivation, and Idealized influence was the lowest. The largest gap between mean scores was in the transformational leadership areas of Individualized consideration for a difference of 0.28, and Intellectual stimulation for a difference of Discussion The findings found that the existing situation of transformational leadership of prinmary school principals were rated at high level of performance. It means that primary school principals in TTH province had good basic abilities at all transformational leadership areas. The findings also explored that the majority of respondents showed their highly needs and aspirations. They believed that those transformational leadership aspects were essential for the school principals success and mostly rated four transformational leadership areas at very high level. This indicated that respondents highly desired to perfect transformational leadership abilities in order to be successful school leadership.

6 652 For the needs of the transformational leadership development, the results presented that the largest and most significant difference between the existing situation level and desired situation level occurred in transformational leadership areas of Individualized consideration and Intellectual stimulation where desired level for the abilities were rated higher and the existing level for the abilities was rated lower. The transformational leadership areas with the smallest gap between the existing and desired level were the areas of Idealized influence and Inspirational motivation. The results also found that the modified PNI values in four transformational leadership areas were lower than It means that the gaps between the existing situation level and desired situation level of four transformational leadership areas were not too large distance, but these four transformational leadership areas should be developed more to achieve the highest level of performance. Suggestion The suggestions through the results obtained in this research as follows: (1) The program of transformational leadership development should be provided in order to enhance primary school principals abilities. (2) Training programs should be focused on the needs of primary school principals in transformational leadership development. (3) Primary school principals should be encouraged to participate in training programs, in order to improve transformational leadership abilities. (4) The finding of this research will be used as a fundamental basis for further study. References Anderson, K. D. (2008). Transformational teacher leadership in rural schools. The Rural Educator, Bass, B. (1998). Transformational leadership: industry, military, and educational impact, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Associates. Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York, NY: Free Press. Bass, B. M. & Avolio, B. J. (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bass, B. M. & Avolio, B. J. (1997). Full range leadership development: manual for the multifactor leadership Questionnaire. CA, Mind Garden. Bennis, W. & Nanus, B. (1997). Leaders: the strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper and Row. Castanheira, P. & Costa, J. A. (2011). In search of transformational leadership: A (Meta) analysis focused on the Portuguese reality. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15(2011), Chew, J. & Chan, C. C. A. (2008). Human resource practices, organizational commitment and intention to stay. International Journal of Manpower, 29(6), Evers, C. W. & Lakomski, G. (1996). Exploring educational administration: coherentist applications and critical debates. NY: Elsevier Science.

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