Literature Review

In the year 2000, Waterloo High School opened its doors to 542 students. The institution was
officially opened on October 3rd 2000.The school was opened by then Prime Minister Basdeo
Panday and Minister of education Mrs. Kamla Persad-Bissessar. The school started with a
principal, six staff members, a secretary and clerk. This small staff was given the daunting task
of managing fifteen form 1 classes. A decade plus later the school now has a student population
of about 900 and a staff of 80 including a principal(leader) and vice principal (second in
command).The physical structure of the institute also expanded and the name has also been
changed to Waterloo Secondary School. Waterloo Secondary now comprises of 26 classrooms, a
multipurpose hall, cafeteria ,Science labs and specialized rooms for technology education,
Technical drawing, Information Technology ,Food and Nutrition. It also consists of a library with
audio visual room and multi-media. The school also consist a local school board and a PTA
which works together to ensure the success of waterloo secondary.
Kendra Cherry a psychology expert defines an Autocratic leadership/Authoritarian leadership, as
a leadership style characterized by individual control over all decisions and little input from
group members. Autocratic leaders typically make choices based on their own ideas and
judgments and rarely accept advice from followers. Autocratic leadership involves absolute,
authoritarian control over a group. Cherry(2014) also defines a Democratic
leadership/Participative leadership, is a type of leadership style in which members of the group
take a more participative role in the decision-making process. Researchers have found that this
learning style is usually one of the most effective and lead to higher productivity, better
contributions from group members, and increased group morale.
A study entitled The effect of principals leadership style on school environment and outcome
was done by Eissa Al-Safran of Kuwait University, David Brown of The University of Tulsa and
Alexander Wiseman of Lehigh University. The main objective of this study was to investigate the
effect of principals leadership style on school outcome. This study focused on the indirect
relationship between the leadership style and the school environment. This research was focused
among schools of USA and Kuwait (Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is an Arab country in
Western Asia.). Questionnaires were used as a data collection method from principal and other
staff or pupils. From this research two styles were identified an Authoritative leadership style and
Integrative leadership/democratic style. Principals using Autocratic leadership style spent at most
33.3% of their time per week communicating with the students, teachers, parents and
community.
Those principals exercised their decision and informative role more than their interpersonal role.
Democratic leadership style was identified by a high communication level, both verbal and
written. Principals who spend at least 66.6 % of their time per week in communicating with
students, teachers, parents, and the community are characterized by an integrative leadership
style. Those principals tended to exercise their interpersonal role more than their decisionmaking role in leading people and achieving organizational goals. In conclusion to their research
it was identified that there is a difference in the principals leadership styles between Kuwait and

the USA. Kuwait principals are characterized as authoritative leaders, while the USA principals
are characteristically integrative in style. Culture has a significant impact on the principals
leadership style. Principals in high power, distance cultures (such as Kuwait) exercise their
authoritative role more than their interpersonal role. It was also identified that in the USA, an
integrative principal leadership style promotes, encourages and creates cooperation and
collaboration among the teachers more than the leadership of the authoritative principals.
Consequently, schools with integrative principals achieve higher academic outcomes than
schools with authoritative principals. There is not a universal and appropriate leadership style of
principals for all schools and cultures. The appropriate principal leadership style depends on the
culture in which the school exists.