Characteristics of leadership styles of school principals

Today, the sensitivity of the leadership in Education and Training and also in schools at various levels has become an increasingly evident issue. This study aimed to determine the elements and characteristics of leadership styles for school principals. For this purpose, first the theoretical literature review was examined, then the components of leadership style were extracted and the effective elements were determined through examining the experts and making the necessary corrections.The statistical population of the study consisted of all principals, teachers and deputies of Tehran schools and 500 people were determined using the Cochran's formula. The components were analyzed by a researcher-made questionnaire and analyzed by regression test and SPSS software. According to the results, the effect of each component of the leadership style of school principals was determined; however, among the components, the effect of transformational and reformist style, supportive style, goal-orientation, and satisfaction were more than the other ones. It could be concluded that there are various leadership styles for the school principals and the implementation of any leadership style, apart from being relevant to the needs of the school and the upstream organization, depends more on the characteristics of school principals. It is believed that the application of useful leadership styles by school principles, although necessary, requires its own conditions.