Principals’ Managerial Skills and Teachers’ Job Performance: Evidence from Public Secondary Schools in Delta State, Nigeria

Employing correlational survey research design this study examined principals’ managerial skills and teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in Owa communities in Delta State, Nigeria. Two research questions and three hypotheses guided the investigation. The population of the study comprised all the secondary schools in Owa communities of North Senatorial District of Delta State, Nigeria. A sample of ten principals and seventy-eight teachers were selected through random sampling technique. A questionnaire which comprised of two sections was used to collect data for the study. The first part was tagged ‘Principals ’Managerial Skills Questionnaire, PMSQ’ and the second part contained 14 items tagged Teachers’ Job Performance Questionnaire, TJPQ’. The instruments were face and content validated by two professors of educational management. Through split-half technique, reliability coefficients 0f 0.78 and 0.82 were computed for PMSQ and TJPQ respectively, using the Cronbach Alpha formula. The mean and standard deviation scores were used to answer the research questions. The hypotheses were tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (r) statistics, and the level of significance was 0.05. The findings revealed that the managerial skills possessed by public secondary school principals for influencing teachers’ job performance are communication, human relations and technical. The level of teachers’ job performance is moderate. There was a significant relationship between principals’ communication skill, human relation skill and technical skill and teachers’ job performance in secondary schools in Owa communities in Delta State, Nigeria. The study recommends capacity building of principals, especially in technical skills on the use of modern techniques and innovative methods in school administration for better teachers’ job performance.