Collaborative Leadership as Predictor of Principals' Administrative Effectiveness Variables in Public Senior Secondary Schools in Rivers State

This study examined the relationship between Collaborative Leadership as Predictor of Principals’ Administrative Effectiveness variables in Public Senior Secondary Schools in Rivers State. Two specific objectives, two research questions and two corresponding null hypotheses guided the study. The study was anchored on Systems Theory by Ludwig von Bertalanffy. A correlational survey research design was adopted. The population comprised 5,676 teaching staff in 367 public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. A sample of 361 respondents was determined using the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table and selected through proportionate stratified random sampling. Data were collected using self-structured questionnaires titled “Collaborative Leadership Questionnaire” and “Principals’ Administrative Effectiveness Variables in Senior Secondary Schools Questionnaire.” The instruments were validated by three experts, and their reliability was established using the test-retest method, yielding coefficients of 0.91 and 0.79, respectively. Of the 361 questionnaires administered, 357 (98.9%) were retrieved, while 353 (97.8%) valid copies were used for analysis. Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) was used to answer the research questions, while the hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance using t-transformation of the correlation coefficient with ±1.96 as the critical value. The findings revealed strong, positive and significant relationships between collaborative leadership and staff development (r = .781, p = .000) and between collaborative leadership and principals’ time management (r = .774, p = .000). The corresponding null hypotheses were rejected, as the calculated t-values of 23.43 and 22.92, respectively, exceeded the critical value of ±1.96 at 351 degrees of freedom. The study concluded that collaborative leadership is significantly associated with principals’ administrative effectiveness in staff development and time management in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. It was recommended that principals should strengthen staff participation, teamwork, delegation and shared responsibility to promote continuous professional development and effective management of administrative time.