ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to investigate the survey of community leadership roles on secondary schools development projects in Benue State. The research adopted descriptive survey research design. Four research questions and two null hypothesis guided the study. The population of the study is 1,200 which comprises of 670community leaders and five hundred and thirty (530) secondary school principals. The sample size of the study is 800 respondents. Simple random sampling techniques were used to select 300 principals and 500 community leaders. A 30 item questionnaire was administered on the 800 respondents. The instrument was validated by three experts, two in Educational Administration and planning and one in measurement and evaluation. The experts examined the instrument and modified it to suit the purpose. The validated was trial tested using 20 respondents which are outside the areas of the study. Cronbach Alpha technique was used for its analysis in the determination of the internal consistency of the instrument. This gave reliability to co-efficient values of 0.87, 0.79, 0.86, and 0.78 for cluster A-D respectively. These gave an overall reliability co-efficient score of 0.89. The major findings indicated that the respondents agree that roles of community leaders towards attainment of secondary school project include motivating the members towards project participation, seeking the opinion of community members before commencement of project, mobilizing the members of the community towards the project implementation, being active and leading by example, good and prudent on financial management. The findings also indicate that the educational background of community leaders affects the development projects of secondary schools. Furthermore the result shows that community leadership style most effective for proper execution of secondary school development projects requires a leader who seeks opinion of majority of community members before embarking upon a given project, among others. Also the result indicated that the major problems encountered by community leaders in executing secondary school development project includes; lack of coordination and lack of funds, among others. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that community leaders should be committed in performing their roles in school developmental project; they should utilize their knowledge of their attained educational background to influence professionally the secondary school development project, among others.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Leadership has been described as the process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. Leadership can be said to be an ability/Authority that pulls people toward becoming comfortable with the language of personal responsibility and commitment. Leadership is not just for people at the top. Everyone can learn to lead by discovering the power that lies within one to make a difference and being prepared when the call to lead comes. (Peteroy, 2001).
Leadership is applied in all facets of life. It is a competency that one can learn to expand one’s perspective, set the complex of a goal, and understand the dynamics of human behaviour and take the initiative to get to where one wants to be. Hence leadership is defined as one’s ability to get others to willingly follow.
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Anyanwu (2007) defined an affective leader as an individual with the capacity to consistently succeed in a given condition and be viewed as meeting the expectations of an organization or society. Leaders are recognized by their capacity in carrying others, clear communication and commitment to persist. For instance, an individual who is appointed to a managerial position has the right to command and enforce obedience by virtue of the authority of his position. However, he or she must possess adequate personal attributes to match this authority because authority is only potentially available to the individual. In the absence of sufficient personal competence, a manager may be confronted by an emergent leader who can challenge his/her role in the organization and reduce it to that of a figurehead. However, only authority of position has the backing of formal sanctions. It follows that whoever wields personal influence and power can legitimize this only by gaining a formal position in the diarchy with commensurate authority (Aderounmu; 1995).
Leadership is a widely applied term that usually refers to the personality characteristics and the behavior of people with authority and influence and responsibility for leading groups. The term is also use to refer to the group of people officially responsible for running an organization.
Leadership function embraces those activities related to supervision, leading and motivating personnel so that they will perform their task in desired ways. The function entails human communication, man- to-man relationships and use of incentives or penalties to motivate people in desired directions. As with other managerial and enterprise functions, the way in which this functions is performed makes a considerable difference in the efficiency of the firm. However, what motivates men to better performance in some cultures may not work may not work very well in other cultures. While leadership may prove quite difficult to define precisely, most perceptive observes can readily detect situation characterize by weak, vaccinating and ineffective leadership as compared to one in which the leader as compared to one in which the leader is competent , respected and effective. Griffiths F.M (2007)
Leadership performance is executives, because of their status, duties and authority, are said to be in position of leadership. If leadership is considered as something that influences person executive performances, would be Leadership performance. More specially, it would be acts which influence the acts of others. On the other hand, leadership style is an imprecise term that refers to the blending of a person’s knowledge of leadership theory and skills with his or her own personality and values under different organizational circumstances to yield a “style” of leadership behavior (Mgbodile, 2003).
In view of the above definitions one can deduce that leadership is found among those who demonstrate persistence, tenacity determination, and synergistic communication so that such skills will bring out some qualities in their groups. Leaders use their own inner mentors to acquire their team and organization and lead a team to achieve success. Leadership therefore is a matter of intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, carriage and discipline. Hence reliance on intelligence alone results in rebelliousness.
Leadership style refers to a leader’s behaviour. It is based on the philosophy, personality and experience of the leader. Rhetoric specialists have also developed models for understanding leadership (Mgbodile, 2003). There are different types of leadership style which include Autocratic or Authoritarians style, participative or democratic style; and Laissez-faire or free rein style.
The autocratic leadership style is used to describe a leader who is high – handed in his administration. Autocratic leader signifies a self centered leaders, a leader whose administration is centered unto himself and all autocratic emanates from time and ends with line.
Under the autocratic leadership style all decision-making powers are centralized in the leader, as a dictator. Leaders do not entertain any suggestions or initiatives from subordinates. The autocratic leader finds it difficult to get genuine love, support and cooperation from subordinate who regard his administration as a “one man show. He maintains a poor human relation with his manager. He is harsh and abusive in his language. It is known that the autocratic leadership produces many undesirable effects on workers and on work situation. The democratic leadership style is also called the participatory leadership signifying its recognition of the need for staff participation in the affairs of the organization. Consulting Democratic leadership places premium on worker or group participation in decision making. The democratic leadership is guided by the philosophy that people are more committed to caring out the decisions in which they played a part in formicating. Thus, the democratic leader invites the participation of workers in decision making, in setting performance standards and evaluating performance.
The laissez faire leadership style is sometimes called the loose raine leadership which can best be described as the detached management style. This is taken from French language, the expression “laissez-faire” which literally means “allow things go their way” is use to described the leader who allows his workers to about go their work the way they want.
