Effect of Autocratic Leadership Style on Teachers’ Performance in 12-year Basic Education in Nyaruguru District, Rwanda

Abstract

Many studies have been conducted to identify the leadership styles employed by school headteachers; however, a gap remains in understanding the effect of these styles on teacher performance. This study investigated the effect of autocratic leadership styles on teachers’ performance. This quantitative study adopted both a correlational design and a descriptive research design. A sample of 164 teachers was selected from a total of 278 teachers in 12-year basic education schools of Nyaruguru District. Simple random sampling was used to select the respondents, and proportional sampling was employed to calculate the number of teachers at each school. Structured questionnaires were used to gather the information that was analyzed by using descriptive statistics, regression, and correlational analysis with the help of SPSS version 27. The findings revealed that autocratic leadership negatively affects teachers' performance in terms of student assessment, parent-teacher collaboration, and instructional planning. Although autocratic leadership is generally detrimental to teachers’ performance, teachers recommended two autocratic leadership behaviors that could help improve performance: informing teachers whether procedures for handling situations are effective, and, if not, establishing new ones; and punishing teachers who make mistakes to prevent recurrence. Referring to the findings, the study recommends that the government should provide a framework to guide school leaders on the leadership behaviours to adopt in their administration, and that headteachers avoid other autocratic behaviours except the two recommended.