Abstract:

The need for transformation of Slovak education along the lines of foreign models is highly topical. Many organisations, not least schools, are seeking to improve the quality of their target processes by finding and developing strong leaders to guide them as efficiently as possible through a complex period of dynamic change. This is one of the reasons why, in today's world of globalisation, rapid change and competition, schools need to identify and develop leaders who can lead them successfully through every change and in every circumstance. New forms of people management are associated with the management of constant changes that are caused by external and internal factors. Organizations, including schools, have to face increasing competition that comes to the market with new services or products, while schools have to adequately process all the context of the pandemic situation, as well as the speed of technical development, changes in the field of information technology, etc. This process requires innovation and change, the perception of which must be based on acceptance not as a threat but as a normal part of the life of the organisation. Attitude to change is one of the important characteristics of a leader's personality in education and is part of the two most current styles of leadership in Slovak schools (transactional and transformative leadership). We start from the assumption that being a leader is socially desirable and expect to see a similarity effect in the results as a consequence of the projection of the ideal self. We hypothesise that the dimensions of the two models will be interrelated. The research was conducted in 2022. The research sample consisted of 183 elementary school teachers with an average age of 44 working in the Banská Bystrica, Trenčín and Žilina regions. Personality structure was measured by the NEO-FFI questionnaire (Ruisel & Hlama, 2007) and perception of the ideal leader by the ILT scale (Epitropaki & Martin 2004). SPSS software was used to process the research data. The study is quantitative comparative and correlational in nature. Our findings show the confirmation of the similarity effect in the projection of one's own personality traits into the perception of an ideal leader in an educational setting. The transformative leader in education appears to be primarily extroverted, personable, and conscientious. The present paper could contribute to the development of the field of human resource management, be helpful to occupational psychologists and managers in the educational environment not only in the development of change strategies, but basically in the implementation of any change that the transformation of Slovak education will bring with it.

Keywords:

Transformative leadership, ideal leader, teacher, implicit leadership theory.