THE IDEAL LEADERSHIP FEATURES OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

Cultural factors may be determinant on leadership qualities. The effectiveness of the leadership qualities which are also determined theoretically may also significantly be affected social factors. The objective of this study, in this context, is to determine what the ideal leadership qualities are according to school principals who work in Hakkari province located on the east of Turkey. In this way, it was determined which qualities were perceived as ideal leadership qualities through school principals who participated in the survey within the context of the conditions they were under. The study has been conducted with 10 school principals having at least 7 years of experience in educational management. All of the school principals who participated in the study were male. The study has been performed by virtue of the Repertory Grid interview technique in accordance with the phenomenological pattern which is a qualitative research method. Each and every training manager who participated produced in the study 100 positive cognitive fictions which corresponded to a total of 1000 cognitive fictions. These cognitive fictions were grouped by taking into account the cognitive fiction similarities and relevant areas thereof. The compliance of the obtained grouping and the control thereof was achieved, in line with the opinion of the researchers who were experts in their fields.

Accordingly, the cognitive fictions produced through the school principals incident to ideal leadership qualities, was determined as follows in order of priorities:
1 - Qualities germane to personality,
2 - Professional Qualifications and
3 - Ethical Values.

There were several cognitive fictions with different order of priorities in the cognitive fiction groups. The first three ideal leadership qualities classified under these three fields were determined as follows: being disciplined seriousness and determinedness in the area of qualities germane to personality; communication skills, acting in a planned manner and the ability to achieve the works thereof in the field of professional competence; and sincerity, justice, reliability and respect for human beings in the field of ethical values. These findings obtained in the results of the research has revealed the fact that ideal school leadership qualities change according to the region where the school is however upon the literature scanning conducted it has been observed that they generally show similarity with the ideal leadership qualities determined theoretically. In this context, being knowledgeable about the school, the characteristics of the environment as well as the region thereof in a correct way and taking into consideration the cultural differences in a sensitive manner in their applications have been deemed quite important for the school managers in terms of having ideal leadership qualities.