A Study of the Relationship between Leadership Styles and Learning Organization in Elementary Schools

The essential requirement to promote schools to learning organizations is effective، committed، and inspiring leaders. Therefore، the purpose of present survey was to identify the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership styles and learning organization in regular state- and board-run elementary schools in Hamadan province. A sample of 582 (226 state-run and 356 board-run) school teachers was drawn from a population of 5137 teachers. A use was made of two questionnaires of leadership styles (Bass & Avolio، 1995) and learning organization (Park، 2006) to collect data. Results revealed that the levels of transformational and transactional leaderships، and learning organization were above average in both school types. Independent t-test further indicated that board-run schools involved transformational leadership and state-run schools exercised transactional leadership. In addition، board-run schools were better than their counterparts in terms of learning organization. Pearson correlation coefficient also suggested that there was a significantly positive relationship (r = 0. 51، 0. 46) between transformational leadership and learning organization in all schools. Additionally، regression analysis indicated that in board-run schools from among the components of transformational leadership، intellectual stimulation، idealized influence، and individualized consideration and in state-run schools، intellectual stimulation had biggest impact on learning organization.