ABSTRACT
Effective
Secondary School administration is central to providing the needed enabling
environment for producing the desired Secondary school products (students) that
can meet with the national objectives for secondary education. The purpose of
this study was to investigate entrepreneurship leadership as a factor in
effective secondary school administration in Enugu State. Four research
questions and two hypoptheses guided the study. The hypotheses were tested at
0.05 level of significance while the decisions on the responses to the research
questions were determined using real limit of numbers. The descriptive survey
design was adopted. The sample population for the study consisted of 100
principals and 100 vice principals selected through proportionate stratified
random sampling. The instrument for data collection was a structured
questionnaire, titled Entrepreneurship leadership, a factor in Effective
secondary school Administration (ELFESSA). The study focused on the extent of
possession of entrepreneurial leadership characteristics by the secondary
school administrators, the effect of gender and location on the extent of
possession and the capacity building strategies for developing entrepreneurial
leadership characteristic. Mean and standard Deviation were used to answer the
research questions while a t-test statistics was used for data analysis.
Findings show that the secondary school administrators in Enugu State possess
entrepreneurial leadership characteristics but lack computer literacy. The
study also discovered that gender does not affect the possession of
entrepreneurial leadership characteristics while location does. Strategies for
developing entrepreneurial leadership characteristics were stated.
Recommendations include among others, that the government should mandate school
administrators to enforce the teaching of entrepreneurship objects in their
schools and follow it up with effective monitoring.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Every
formally instituted organisation exists to achieve some specific goals. These
goals however can hardly be achieved without effective administration. In other
words, administration is an indispensable factor in the realization of the
aspirations of any organization. Edem (1987) viewed administration as the
planned activities which aim at the fulfilment of the goals of a particular
organization. These activities include; task descriptions, assigning tasks to
personnel, directing the personnel for effective performance, co-ordinating the
different units or departments and ensuring a free flow of information. Ndu,
Ocho and Okeke (1997) defined administration as being concerned with
decision-making, planning, organization, communicating, co-ordinating and evaluating.
In the opinion of Ogbonna (1995), administration is a process which entails the
utilization of human and financial resources in maximizing the realization of
goals. For the purpose of this study, administration simply put is working through people to achieve
organizational goals using resources. This definition reveals a key important
component of administration which controls the other components for the
realization of organizational goals, and that is leadership.
The execution of all the administrative functions of an organization is
actually spear-headed by the leader who is also known as the chief executive.
The leader sets the pace and inspires others to willingly act towards the
realization of the organizational goals. Keeja (1998) viewed leadership as the
ability to influence others by persuasion, example, and tapping inner moral
values. This definition is very apt for this study as it brings out the means
by which a leader can influence others positively. This means that influencing
others to act in a way that can produce desirable outcome is not automatic. It
is not dependent on title or formal authority or position one occupies. Rowe
(2007) asserted that although one’s position as the chief executive gives the
person the authority to accomplish certain tasks and objectives in the
organization, yet the power does not make him a leader. It simply makes him the
boss.
Leadership differs from a position of authority in that, it makes the
followers willingly want to achieve high goals rather than bossing people
around. It is therefore imperative that any individual who is appointed to a
position of authority should possess certain leadership attributes for
effectiveness. Some of the attributes of an effective leader identified by Etuk
(1991) include the ability to command respect and confidence, ability to make
timely decisions, a personality to organise and co-ordinate group activities
and ability to appraise his subordinates and get along with them. Effective
leaders are effective followers and so they set examples for others to follow.
They act as
catalyst by motivating and inspiring their subordinates into higher levels of
teamwork. The leader must show signs of professional competence, exemplary
character and ability to carry others along through effective communication.
The possession of such leadership attributes will most likely make for
effective administration.
The very essence of any administration is to fulfill the aspirations of
its organization. In other words, no organization, no administration. This is
because an organization is the foundation upon which the whole administrative
structure is built. In the opinion of Mbipom (2000) an organization is a group
of people working together for a common purpose. In this sense, an organization
is born whenever an identifiable group of people contribute their efforts
towards the attainment of common set goals. Of course no group either large or
small can unitedly work towards the attainment of a common goal without someone
co-ordinating, directing, guiding and motivating them. The viability of any
organization therefore depends on how well it is administered and managed. In
other words, the success or failure of any organisation depends to a large
extent on the effectiveness of the leader or administrator. The school is an
organization established by a society to equip her citizenry with the necessary
knowledge, attitude, skills, values and norms that will help them meet the
needs of the society.One of the functions of the school in the opinion of
Lydiah and Nasong (2009), is to take human raw material (students) and convert
them into something more valuable as in employable adults. The school carries
out this function
through the provision of basic infrastructural facilities, instructors,
teaching and learning equipment. An indispensable factor in the discharge of
this function is the administrative process. It is duty of the school
administrator to ensure effective manipulation of the resources available in
his school. He takes both the credit and the blame for the organizational
success or failure.
Secondary education occupies a key position within the Nigerian
educational system. The Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004), in recognition of
the importance of secondary education stated its broad goals to include;
preparation for useful living within the society and for higher education. In
pursuance of these, diversified curriculum to cater for the differences in
talents, opportunities and future roles have been designed with emphasis on
entrepreneurship. Suffice it to say that well administered secondary education
will equip the students with the right intellectual capacity for further
studies and encourage spirit of enquiring resulting to their being resourceful,
inventive and self- reliant. Regrettably, lamented Omorigie (2005), the
products of today’s secondary education system can neither usefully live in the
society nor move into higher institution without their parents’ aid or forgery.
They can neither think for themselves nor respect the views of others. They
have no regard for dignity of labour but rather crave for anything that would
fetch them quick money. This is a far cry from the national education goals,
hence, there is need for change.
It must be noted that education cannot be seen as an instrument ‘par
excellence” for effecting national development where the secondary education is
not effectively managed or administered to accomplish its aims and objectives.
The administrative head of a secondary school is called the principal. As the
leader, he or she takes both the credit and blame for the organizational
success or failure. In order to ensure effectiveness, the principal has to
apply the right leadership approach in the management of both human, material
and financial resources. The principal in the opinion of Ekundayo (2010) is a
change facilitator. When it comes to efforts to improve the quality of the
school, the principal is the key person in making change occur. For effective
secondary school administration, principals need to review their leadership
practices and be open to adopting leadership skills, attitudes and practices
that match with the organizational demands, thereby producing the desired
outcome.
Entrepreneurship possesses characteristics consisting of relevant
behaviours, skills and competence that enable an individuals see and run an
enterprise or organisation successfully. It is central to the promotion of
wealth creation and economic growth .In the view of Sobel (2008),
entrepreneurship is the process of discovering ways of combining resources. An
entrepreneur is therefore a calalyst for economic change in an economy by
introducing new goods or new methods of production. He is a catalyst for economic
change. There are certain attributes that characterize successful
entrepreneurs. Bram (2008) noted that such characteristics are not what a
person is born with but can be
learned, though some people may seem to have an aptitude for the qualities that
make up the entrepreneurial spirit. He mentioned some of the characteristics to
include; discipline, calm, attention to detail, risk tolerance and balance.
Such entrepreneurial characteristics enable an individual to seek and run an
enterprise or organization successfully.
It is worthy of note that a key element in entrepreneurial success is
leadership. Thus for a successful entrepreneurial venture leadership is very
essential. It is through the process of leadership that an entrepreneur is able
to influence employees to achieve the objectives of the organization. In the
view of Gunther and McMillian (2000), entrepreneurial leaders translate ideas
into action. They passionately seek new opportunities, always looking for the
chance to profit from change and disruption. The implication of the above
definitions is that entrepreneurship leadership has no regard for maintaining
the status quo but is rather result oriented. It is against this background
that this study focuses on entrepreneurial leadership as a factor in effective
secondary school administration in Enugu State with a view to finding out the
extent of possession of the attributes of entrepreneurial leadership by the
secondary school administrators in the state public schools and the capacity
building strategies for acquiring such attributes......
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