Perceptions of Aspiring Malaysian Principals on Transactional

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J. Soc. Sci. Hum. 10 1 : 63-71 2002 lSSN: 0128-7702 Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

Perceptions of Aspiring Malaysian Principals on Transactional,Transformational n Instructional Leadership Behaviours

ZAIDATOL AKMALIAH LOPE PIHIE* HABIBAH ELIAS**Faculty of Educational Studies

Universiti Putra Malaysia4 4 UPM Serdang Selangor Malaysia

Email: [email protected] [email protected]

Keywords: Transformational leadership, transactional leadership, instructional leadership, schoolleadership and management

BSTR KTujuan kajian ini i al ah untuk menentukan darjah pelaksanaan tingkah laku kepemimpinanpengajaran, transaksional dan transformasional oleh bakal pengetua sekolah dalam pengurusansekolah menengah. Data telah d ikumpu l dar ipada 89 pelajar siswazah yang mengikuti kursuskepemimpinan dalam program sar jana Pentadbiran Pendidikan di Universiti Putra Malaysia.Mereka merupakan guru-guru yang berpengalaman mengajar daripada 89 sekolah menengahyang berbeza di Malaysia. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bakal pengetua sekolah menengahmempersepsikan diri mereka sebagai berkebolehan dalam mengamalkan stail kepemimpinantransformasional. Dapatan juga menunjukkan bahawa bakal pengetua ini mendapat skor yangtinggi dalam semua aspek tingkah laku kepemimpinan transformasional seperti motivasi inspirasi,karisma, rangsangan intelektual dan pertimbangan individu. Berhubung dengan tanggungjawabkepemimpinan pengajaran, dapatan menunjukkan bahawa bakal pengetua ini mendapat skoryang tinggi dalam aspek menyediakan suasana teratur untuk pembelajaran dan menekankanpencapaian pelajar. Namun demikian kecenderungan mereka meningkatkan dan menilai prestasiguru adalah rendah. Kajian ini mencadangkan beberapa implikasi tertentu untuk penambahbaikanamalan kepemimpinan sekolah di Malaysia untuk keberkesanan sekolah.

STR GrThe purpose of this s tudy was to determine the degree to which aspir ing school principals willpractise transactional, transformational and instructional leadership behaviour in managingsecondary schools. Data were collected from 89 graduate students enrolled in the leadershipcourse for the masters programme in Educational Administration conducted at UPM Serdang.They came from different parts of Malaysia and had teaching experience in 89 different schools.Findings indicated that aspiring secondary school principals perceived themselves as capable ofadopting transformational leadership style. Results indicate that these participants scored highon all aspects of transformational leadership behaviour such as inspirational motivation, charisma,intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration. With regard to instructional leadershipresponsibilities, findings indicated that the aspiring principals scored high on providing anorderly atmosphere for learning and emphasizing student achievement. However, their inclinationtowards improving and evaluating teachers performance was low. This study suggests cer ta inmeasures to improve the Malaysian school leaders practice for school effectiveness.

INTRODUCTIONmay be defined as a process of socialbetween th e leader an d his or her

in which th e leader seeks to

influence his or her subordinates to achieve th eobjective of th e organization (Petzall 1991 .Transactional leadership was described by Burns1978 as motivating followers primarily through


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Zaidatol Akmaliah L op e P ih ie Habibah Elias

contingent reward-based exchanges. Typically,the main focus of transactional leaders is onsetting g oa ls , c la ri fy in g th e link betweenperformance and rewards, and providingcontructive feedback to keep followers on task Bass 1985) . B ur ns 1978) described th e mostcommon form of leadership relationship foundbetween leaders an d followers as transactional.

In contrast, transformational leadershipinvolves developing a close relationship betweenleaders an d followers, on e based more on trustand c om m i t m e nt than o n contractualagreements. T r an s fo r m at i on a l l e ad e rs helpfollowers to see th e importance of transcendingtheir own self-interest for th e sake of th e missionan d vision of t he ir g ro up an d organization.G ar dn er a nd A vo ll io 1 99 8) stated that bybuilding followers self confidence, self-efficacy,an d self-esteem, s uc h l ea de rs a re e xp ec te d tohave a s tr on g, positive influence on followerslevels of identification, motivation an d goalachievement. A transformational leader attemptst o r ec og ni ze followers needs an d raise thoseneeds to higher levels of motivation an d maturitywhile striving to fulfill human p ot en ti al . S uc htotal engagement emotional, intellectual an dmoral) of both leaders an d followers encouragesfollowers to d ev elo p an d perform beyondexpectations. T hi s f or m of l ea de rs hi p b o nd sleaders an d followers within a c ol la bo ra ti vechange process which w l l have impact on th eperformance of th e whole organization an dresults in a responsive an d innovativeenvironment.

Abrams 1998) found t h a t successfulprincipals placed th e n eed s o f stu de nts in th ecenter of all their decision making. This appearedto be th e prime transformational behaviour thatawakened th e intrinsic motivation among staffmembers. M oreover, t he y demonstratedt ra ns f or m at io n al l ea d er sh i p b eh av io u rs thatin clu de d me eting intrinsic needs of followers,visionaryleadership, building collaborative schoolcultures, an d putting teachers in roles ofinstructional leadership. In order to furtherunderstand transformational an d transactionalleadership, th e following e x plan a tio ns h e lp tosee how it is being practised in th e organization.

TR NSFORM TION L LE DERSHIPharismaTh e leader instills pride, faith an d respect an dha s a g if t fo r seeing what is really important and

transmits a sense of mission. t is th e leader sability to arouse devotion an d involvementthrough p er so na l d y na m ic s such as selfconfidence, ideological s ta nc e a n d d r ama tic an demotional appeal.Inspirational MotivationInspirational m ot iv at io n is closely related tocharisma. Leaders inspire by increasingfollowers awareness and understanding ofmutually d es ir ed go al s through symbols an dsimplified emotional persuasion.Individualized onsiderationT he leader d elegates p ro jects to stim ulatelearning experiences, provides coaching an dteaching, and treats each follower as ani nd iv id ua l. H en ce , t ra ns fo rm at io na l l ea de rsstrengthen f ol low er s by raising their needperspectives an d y providing opportunities forthem to develop their capabilities. To elevategoals an d develop their skills, they treat followerson a one-to-one basis. They provide support,encouragement, an d developmental experiencesto followers.Intel edual Stimulation t provides encouragement to challenge the statusq uo a nd take risks. F ollowers are supported fo rcreativity an d self-direction. T h e l ea d er arousesfollowers to think in ne w w ys an d emphasizesproblem-solving an d th e use of reasoning beforetaking action. He influences followers to viewproblems f ro m a n ew p er sp ec ti ve .

TR NS TION L LE DERSHIPontingent RewardTh e leader provides rewards if followers performin accordance with t he t er ms of th e contract orexpend the necessary effort. Appropriate rewardsar e fo r meeting agreed-upon objectives.Management y ExceptionT he l ea de r avoids giving directions if the oldw ys ar e working an d allows followers to c o ntin u edo in g t he ir jobs in their usual manner ifperformance goals ar e met. Leaders leaveorganizational members alone to d o th eir jobs. p ro bl em s a re perceived, only then w ll theyc or re ct , s an ct io n or criticize behaviour. Inessence, management-by-exception is a form ofnegative contingent reinforcement.

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of Aspiring Malaysian Principals on Transactional, Transformational Instructional Leadership Behaviours

Bass (1985) views transformational andleadership as distinct but not

exclusive processes, and he recognizesa t the same leader may use both processes attimes in different situations.structional eadershipe principal or th e instructional leader at the

is expected to be knowledgeable aboutand instruction and able to intervene

with te ache rs in making instructionalprovements (Hal linger 1992). Wildy and

(1993) claimed that research into th eleadership behaviour of principals

been conducted largely within the frameworkschool effectiveness.I n educa tion, th e challenges of schoolhave been cited as reasons for

a move f rom ins truc ti onal tonsformational forms of school leadership

Jantzi 1997) . Lei thwood (1992)that an emphasis on instructionalwas wholly appropriate and timely in

e ear ly 1980 s when th e te rm gai ned afollowing. But instructional

conveys a meaning which encompassesa portion of those activities now associatedeffective school leadership. The school is

w viewed as the unit responsible for theof change, not just theof changes. Schools needleaders who are able to inspire

t o perform beyond commonly heldAs suggested by Burns (1978) and

ss (1985), transformational style of leadershipon th e individual development of

and thus helps to enhance theirThe purpose of this study was to investigate

what extent th e aspiring Malaysian secondaryol principals w practise transformational,

and inst ruc tiona l leadershipin order to achieve school

ectiveness. Specifically, the study attempts toanswers to th e following research questions.What are the reasons for seekingprincipalship as perceived by aspiring schoolprincipals?What is th e perception of aspiring schoolprincipals r eg ardi ng t he ir own trans-formational an d transactional leadershipbehaviour?

3. What is the perception of aspiring schoolprincipals regarding their own instructionalleadership behaviour?

4. What is the perception of aspiring schoolprincipals regarding school effectiveness?

5. What is the relationship between aspiringprincipals perception of school effectivenessand selected background variables?

6. What is the relationship between aspiringprincipals perception of transformationaland transactional leadership behaviour an dschool effectiveness?

7. What is th e r el ati on sh ip b etwe enrespondents age, teaching experience, an dadministrative experience with theirperception of every aspect of trans-formational behaviour?

M THOSampleParticipants of th e study consisted of 89 secondaryschool teachers enrolled as graduate students intwo different programmes. The first groupcompr is ed s tu dent s in t he e du ca ti on aladministration programme conducted by th eFaculty of Educational Studies, Universiti PutraMalaysia. The second group followed th eEducational Management programme jointlyconducted by lAB and Universiti Putra Malaysia.Both the programmes were conducted in 1999.Data were collected via a questionnaireadministered to both groups of students duringth e Educational Leadership Class.nstrumentationThe constructs of transformational leadershipbehaviour were viewed as represented bycharisma, inspirational motivation, intellectualstimulation and individual consideration. Thetransactional leadership behaviour was viewed asrepresented by contingent reward andmanagement by exception. All items ontransformational and transactional leadershipand school effectiveness used in this researchwere an adaptation of the questionnaire used inZainab s study (1997). The respondents wereasked to answer a questionnaire by using 4 pointLikert Scale items on school effectiveness,transformational and transactional leadershipbehaviour from 1 extremely disagree to 4 extremely agree . Respondents were asked to

rate the ir behaviour based on a scale of 1 to 4.Th e reliability o f th e ins truments ranged from

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Zaidatol Akmaliah Lope Pihie Habibah Elias

.61 to .85. Total items used to measuretransformational leadership behaviour were 20.Th e instrument consisted of 8 i tems to measurecharisma 4 items to m ea su re inspirationalmotivation 4 items to measure intellectualstimulation an d 4 ite ms to m ea su re individualconsideration. Sixteen i te ms w er e used tomeasure transactional leadership behaviour an deight items to measure school effectiveness.

Fo r the instructional leadership instrumenta questionnaire developed by Willis an d Bartel990) was modified an d revised with activitiessignificant f or i nst ructi onal l eadership practicein Malaysia. Th e reliability of th e instructionalleadership ins tr um ent was .86. O n th einstructional leadership items, respondents wereasked t o i ndi cat e their choice on a scale o f on eto f ou r fo r th e 16 given items. They were askedto identify to what extent t hey will prac tiseinstructional leadership responsibilities by usingth e following scale: 1 = will no t perform 2 =perform to a minor extent 3 = perform equallywith others an d 4 = perform to a major extent.

An instrument regarding reasons fo r seekingprincipalship was originally ta ke n fro m Willisan d Bartel 1990) an d th e i tems were thenm od if ie d to s ui t th e tasks of aspiring Malaysianschool principals.

R SU TSTable 1 illustrates that most of the respondentsar e male , in th e age category of 35 - 45 years,have more th an 8 years t eaching exper iencean d 60 have no administrative experience.

TABLE 1Respondents background

Category f Gender Male 53 60

Female 36 40Ag e 24 - 34 37 42

35 - 45 39 43Above 45 13 15

Teaching experience < 8 years 37 428 years more 52 58Administrative o experience 53 60experience < 4 years 22 24

4 years more 14 16

Research Question 1: W ha t a re th e reasonsfo r seeking principalship as perceived by aspiringprincipals?

Table 2 i ll us tr at es t ha t most of th erespondents p er ce iv ed t he h ig he st r an ki ngreasons to be a school principal as : t o e nh a nc eprofessional advancement to upgrade edu-cational excellence, to work with people an dstudents an d to be a change agent. About 18 of th e sample indicate that they ar e no t reallyinterested in becoming school pri ncipals eventhough they follow th e Masters P ro gr am me i neducational administration.

Research question 2: What is th e perceptiono f a sp ir in g p ri nc ip al s r eg ar di ng their ow ntransformational an d transactional leadershipbehaviour?

Looking at th e mean score as i llustrated inTable 3, the aspiring school principals willp ra ct is e m od er at el y h ig h t ra ns fo rm at io na l

TABLE 2Reasons fo r seeking principalship

Reasons Agree ) Do no t agree ) mean s.d1 Professional advancement 87 98) 2 2) 3.65 .502. T o e nh an ce educational excellence 87 98) 2 2) 3.65 .503. Interest i n w o rk i ng with people/students 85 96) 4 4) 3.34 .524. To be a change a g e n t/ influence policy 88 89) 1 1) 3.53 .50

decision making5. Confidence in one s leadership abilities/ 79 89) 10 11) 3.05 .50

administrative skills6 To have an i mp ac t o n instructional 72 81) 14 19) 3.14 .72

programs7. Only i f a p p oi n te d 76 85) 13 15) 2.80 .688. Increase in salary 64 72) 25 18) 2.95 .749. Not interested 16 18) 73 82) 1.82 .77



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of Aspiring Malaysian Principals on Transactional, Transformational Instructional Leadership BehavioursTABLE 3

Aspiring school principals transformationalleadership behaviour

The highest mean score was fo r th eational motivation category (mean = 3.67),l lowed by intel lectual s timulation (mean =

charisma (mean = 3.48) and individual(mean = 3.40).Th e aspiring principals perception of their

n transactional leadership behaviour is rather

Table 4 indicates tha t the mean score of theing principals regarding their transactional

dership behaviour for contingent reward isand the mean score for management by

is 2.0l.Research question : What is the perception

aspiring school principals regarding their ownleadership behaviour?

Table 5 illustrates the mean ranking ofructional leadership practice or responsibilitiesperceived by the respondents. Looking at the

score, they ranked high on activities suchproviding orderly atmosphere fo r learning ,d emphasizing student achievement .

as aspiring principals do no t believethey need to recognize teachers performancece they ranked low on evaluating performance

f t eacher s , selec ting an d reviewing ofmaterials and introducing newmethods to teachers . Most of the

ems were perceived in the category of will beequally with others and items on

TABLE 4Aspiring school principals transactional

leadership behaviour

accepting responsibility for student behaviouroutside school were perceived i n t he category ofperform to a minor extent .

Research question : What is the perceptionof aspiring school principals regarding theirschool leadership effectiveness?

Table 6 illustrates the perception of aspiringprincipals on school effectiveness. They weregiven 8 items and asked to identify their degreeof agreement on the managerial practice ofschool leaders. Findings indicate that aspiringprincipals believed that they will be effectiveleaders in representing their s taff in meetingorganizational requirements (mean = 3.70) andrepresenting their staff to higher authority (mean

TABLE 5Ranking of instructional leadership

responsibilities as perceived by teachersInstructional leadership Rank/ s.dactivities meanProviding orderly atmosphere 3.91 .29for learningEmphasizing student 3.90 .32achievementArticulating goals to staff 3.87 .33Providing supportive climate 3.85 .36for teachersEvaluating pupil s progress 3.82 .46Involving teachers in decision 3.69 .46makingSetting expectation for 3.67 .52student performanceManaging resources allocated 3.60 .56for instructional useAccepting responsibility for 3.57 .52student behaviour in schoolEvaluating performance of 3.56 .54teachersSelecting and reviewing of 3.48 .68curriculum materialsDevising instructional strategies 3.47 .67Introducing new instructional 3.33 .69methods to teachersSetting expectation for 3.33 .66student behaviourArticulating school goals to 3.31 .72publicAccepting responsibility for 2.68 .78student behaviour outsideschool ote 1 will no t perform

2 perform to a minor extent3 perform equally with others4 perform to a major extent

2

ranks3.202.01

means

means ranks3.48 23.67 13.55 33.40 4

1 = totally disagree4 = totally agree

rewardby exception

1 = totally disagree4 = totally agree

motivationllectual stimulation

consideration

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TABLE 7Relationship between respondents perception ofschool effectiveness and age, teaching experience

and administrative experience

perception on school leadership effectiveness.Research question 6: What is the relationshipbetween aspiring principals transformational andtransactional behavior and school effectiveness?

Table 8 explains the relationship betweenthe aspiring principals transformational andtransactional leadership behaviour and theirperception of school effectiveness. Findingsindicate that there is a moderately high andsignificant relationship between transformationalleadership behaviour and school effectiveness.

Research Question 7: What is th erelationship between respondents age, teaching

there is a significant moderate positIVerelationship between the age of respondentsan d their perception on effectiveness. This meansthat the older the respondents are, the higherwill be their perception on school leadershipeffectiveness. There is also a s ignificant bu tmoderate positive relationship betweeneffectiveness and t eaching exper ience. Thismeans that t he deg ree of school leadershipeffectiveness as perceived by teachers increases they have had more teach ing exper ience.Finally, there is also a s ignificant relationshipbetween respondents perceptions on schoolleadership effectiveness and administrativeexperience. This means that those teachers withmore administrative experience will have a higher

= 3.65). The lowest ranking practice was for thestatement I will get my staff to do more thanthey are expected to d o with a mean score =2.72 and I will increase my staff willingness totry harder with a mean score = 3.49. Theoverall mean for schoo l effectiveness was 3.50which indica tes a moderately high agreement

TABLE 6Aspiring principals perceptions on schooleffectiveness

School Effectiveness Items Mean s.d.I will ge t my staff to do more 2.72 1.04than they a re expec ted t o doI will heighten my staff s 3.62 0.61desire succeedI will work with my s taf f in 3.62 0.51a satisfactory wayI will increase my staffs 3.49 0.55willingness to try harderI will be an effective leader to 3.55 0.62meet my staff jo b related needsI will be an effective leader in 3.65 0.50representing my sta ff tohigher authorityI will be an effective leader in 3.70 0.51meeting organizationalrequirementsI will use methods of leadership 3.62 0.57that are satisfYing ote 1 totally disagree4 totally agree

on all school effectiveness items as illustrated inTable 6Research question 5: What is the relationshipbetween aspiring principals perception on schooleffectiveness and selected background variables?

Table 7 i llustrates the correlation betweenrespondents perception on school effectivenessand respondents age, teaching experience, andadministrative exper ience. Findings shows that

AgeEffectiveness .27

< .01** < .001

TeachingExperience

.25 AdministrativeExperience

.39**

TABLE 8Relationship between aspiring principals leadership behaviour and school effectiveness

Effectiveness transformational Transactional

EffectivenessTransformationalTransactional p < .01P < .05

.47**.25*

.47**.26*

.25*

.26*

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TABLE 9Correlation between transformational leadership

categories and respondents ' backgroundsBackground Ch IS ICAge .28* .22* .24* .25*Teaching experience .32* .25* .19 .21Administrative experience .05 .28 .11 .08

and administrative experience withperception of every aspect of

ransformational leadership behaviour?Findings indicate that 'age' has a significantoderate relationship with all transformational

eadership categories and effectiveness. Table 9hows that teaching experience was found tohave a moderate correlation with 'charisma',an d ' inspirational motivation'. There is nosignificant correlation between administrativeexperience and all category of transformationalleadership behaviour.

DIS USSION ND ON LUSIONThe aspiring school principals perceived thatthey will practise higher level transformationalleadership behaviour they are given the chanceto lead their school. They perceived that theirability to demonstra te t ransformat ionalleadership behaviour is moderately high. For allcategories of t ransformat ional leadershipbehaviour, t he mean score ranged from 3.40 -3.57. The aspiring principals are perceived topracti se i n the transactional behaviour lessfrequently, since the mean score is rather low.

Looking at the reasons why teachers selectprincipalship, the top ranked reasons are: to bea change agent (99 ), t o enhance educationalexcellence (98 and f or p ro fe ss io na l'ldvancem ent (98 ). A bout 89 seekJrincipalship because they perceived that theyla d leadership abilities and administrative skills.rh e increase in salary is no t considered as theop r ank ing reason for seeking principalship,nd about 85 agreed that they will be principalsf they are appointed.

An interesting finding was the significante lat ionship between the prac tice of trans-

formational leadership and school leadershipeffectiveness as a whole as perceived by theaspiring school principals. The higher theyperceive that they will practise transformationalleadership behaviour, th e more effective theirschool will be . The aspiring principals'transformational leadership behaviour correlatessignificantly with effectiveness. This findingsupports the findings ofBurns (1985) who founda stronger relationship between transformationalleadership and school effectiveness.

As a whole, aspiring principals will performto a major extent instructional leadershipresponsibilities related to promoting a posit iveschool clinlate. If they were the school principals,their most pract iced ins tructional leadershipresponsibilities will be to provide an o rder lya tmosphere for learning an d emphasizingstudents' achievement. The least practisedresponsibilities as perceived by the asp ir ingprincipals will be accep ting responsibility fo rstudent behavior outside school and articulatingschool goals to the public.Evaluating teachers' performance was notranked high in importance even though this ison e of th e to p rank ed responsibilities ofinstructional leaders as identified in the literature(Willis and Bartel 1990). Teachers ranked itnumber 10 from the 16 responsibilities listed.Aspiring principals also focus less on th eresponsibilities related to man agi ng th ecurriculum especially on selecting andreviewing of curriculum materials , devisinginstructional strategies and introducingnewinstructional methods to teachers .

Thus this study contradicts the findings ofWillis an d Bartel (1990) who found thatevaluating teachers' performance was rankedfirst and second respectively by the outstandingAmerican and Japanes e school principals.However, similar findings were found by Wildyand Dimock (1993), since their findings alsoindicate low r at ing for 'moni to ring teachingperformance'. Besides, this current study alsosupported Wildy an d Dimock whose studyconcluded that instructional leadership appearsto be a shared responsibility involving staffat alllevels, and that 'managing the curriculum' and'evaluating and providing feedback' are the areasof responsibility in which principals are the leastinvolved. Aspiring principals in Malaysiaperceived that they bore a greater level of

charismainspirational motivationintellectual stimulationindividual consideration

ChISIC

*p .01

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responsibility to promote a positive school climateespecially for providing an orderly atmospherefo r learning and emphasizing studentachievement. This s du e to th e fact that theculture s still to achieve academic excellenceand th e teachers are influenced to work towardsthis goal.

The overall mean of school effectiveness ofthe aspiring principals s moderately high. Thehighest mean score s for the item to be aneffective leader in meeting organizationalrequirements but they still score low for theitem to get staff to do more than they areexpected to do . This proves that they needmor e t ra in ing t o p rac ti se transformationalleadership behavior. There is a moderate butsignificant relat ionship between leadershipeffec tiveness with teacher s age, teachingexperience and administrative experience. Thismeans that the older the teachers are, the higherwill be t he ir percept ion of their schooleffectiveness, and the more experience they havein teaching and administration work, th e higherwill be their perception o f leadershipeffectiveness.

Aspiring principals should be given anopportunity to learn to be transformational andinstructional leaders. Under st andi ng theresponsibilities of instructional leaders s a mustto ensure that future principals can focus on theimprovementof instructional quality. learningis a life- long process and the school goal s toimprove the quality of education, then aspiringprincipals need to be continually educated.Furthermore, transformational leadership hasbeen shown to have a direct, positive relationshipwith performance.

Aspiring principals should understand thebasis of shared instructional leadership becausemore people should be involved in improvinginstructional quality. In order to meet the rapidlychanging needs of Malaysian students, teachersas well as parents must be given the authority tomake appropriate instructional decisions.

Instructional leaders must be knowledgeableabout curriculum and instruction, must be ableto plan continuous improvementof instructionalprograms and be actively engaged in staffdevelopment. They should also be encouragedto utilize th e latest teaching instruct ionalstrategies. Most important of all, futureinstructional leaders should be active participantsin staff development.

The concept of excellence in schoolmanagement should be focused on th e effortcontributed y the workforce, and successfulschools build t he ir mission statements andorganizational values around the recognitionand value of their teachers. The performance ofeach school rests on the skills, knowledge,attitudes and other characteristics of th e teachers.Thus the practice of transformational leadershipmay result in a higher level of satisfaction an deffectiveness among th e teachers. This studysupported Leithwood 1992) who discovered thatthere was a significant relationship betweentransformational leadership and ins tructionalbehaviour and this study found that th e aspiringprincipals showed a positive attitude towardsschool improvement. Indeed, transformationalleadership s the most appropr ia te style fo rachieving better teacher performance. Finally,transformational leadership s concerned mainlywith develop ing a teacher s full potential.Abrams 1998) claimed that principals in theirstudy believed that their pre-service educationaladministration program was i na dequat e inpreparing them for their role as principals. Thisstudy supports Abrams 1998) who believes thatpre-service programs need to define a body ofknowledge and create a cohesive curriculum toteach the skills that administrators need to knowto be effective leaders in their schools. Rue andByars 2000) believe that a transformationalleader cultivates employee acceptance of th egroup mission. The leader-employee relationships one of mutual stimulation and s characterized ycharisma on the part of the leader, inspiration ythe leader, consideration y the leader of individualneeds, and intellectual stimulation between theleader and followers. Transformational leaders gobeyond transacting with their followers an dtransform no t only th e situation bu t also th efollowers. Thus, aspiring principals need to betrained to be transformational leaders. Blaseand Blase 2000) suggested that the preparationand continuing development of instructionalleaders should de-emphasize principal controland encouragement of competition amongteachers. Programs should teach practising andaspiring principals how to develop professionaldialogue and collegiality among educators. Blaseand Blase 2000) also found that their model ofeffective instructional leadership was deriveddirectly from their research data which consistof two major themes: talking with teachers to



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Received: 28 August 2001

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Perceptions of Aspiring Malaysian Principals on Transactional