Abstract
Problem. This study examined the leadership behaviors of secondary principals working with legally defined subgroup members of school site councils to determine the differences between leadership styles and followers' satisfaction levels. Procedure. The Hersey and Blanchard Situational Leadership Model was used to assess leadership styles. An eight-item questionnaire was developed to gather demographic data and levels of satisfaction felt by subgroup members. A total of 257 persons were sampled. Satisfaction levels and dominant leadership styles were analyzed using the chi square test with a .05 significance. Trends in data were depicted by histograms. An ANOVA one-way analysis was used to analyze possible differences between demographic characteristics and levels of satisfaction at .05 significance. Results. Four hypotheses were advanced to direct this descriptive study. Hypothesis (1) addressed the differences of congruence and incongruence of leader and follower perceptions on levels of satisfaction. No significant differences were found between groups. Trends were noted for each leadership style. Hypothesis (2) concerned the dominant leadership style perceptions of subgroup members. Subgroup and principal perceptions were the same (S('2) and S('3)) but their rank order was reversed. Hypothesis (3) addressed the principals' self-perceptions of dominant leadership style. They perceived themselves to have two dominant styles, S('2) and S('3). Hypothesis (4) dealt with the demographic characteristics of school site council members. None were found to have significant affect on levels of satisfaction. Trends were noted. Conclusions and Recommendations. Leadership styles S('2) and S('3) were the most used and most satisfying to followers and leaders. A repertoire of styles was not identified by leaders even though it was perceived by followers. Practitioners could benefit from Situational Leadership Theory in their pre-training and in-service training as they work to optimize the collective productivity of their school site councils.