Abstract:

Purpose: This study aims to examine the relationship between school administrators’ paternalistic leadership characteristics and schools effectiveness. Design/Methodology/Approach: Having a quantitative research design, this research used a relational survey model. The population of the study consisted of the teachers working at public kindergarten, primary, secondary and high schools located within the central districts of Kahramanmaraş province (Onikişubat, Dulkadiroğlu) during the 2019-2020 academic year. The sample held a total of 370 teachers who were selected by random sampling method. The study employed three data collection tools: "Paternalistic Leadership Scale", "School Effectiveness Scale" and "Personal Information Form" developed by the researcher. Findings: The research findings revealed a positive and medium level relationship between the school administrators’ paternalistic leadership behaviors and the effectiveness of the schools; moreover, there was a positive and high level relation between the sub-dimensions of “family atmosphere”, “benevolence” “and the effectiveness of the schools; a positive and medium level relation between “authoritarianism” sub-scale and the effectiveness of the schools; whereas, a negative and low level relationship was determined between “interventionism”, “finding inadequacy” and school effectiveness. Besides, only the “family atmosphere”, “benevolence” and “authoritarianism” sub-dimensions of the paternalistic leadership were identified to be significant predictors of the effectiveness of schools. Highlights: The research findings revealed a positive and medium level relationship between the school administrators’ paternalistic leadership behaviors and the effectiveness of the schools. The variables of family atmosphere, benevolence and authoritarianism together explained approximately 63% of the total variance related to school effectiveness.

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