Leadership styles of dental college principals in Lahore, Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Leadership has many dimensions. Bolman and Deal synthesized the diverse body of leadership theory into four cognitive perspectives, or frames, which they labeled structural, human resource, political and symbolic. Effective educational leaders use multiple frames according to need, and consistently use the political frame. This study was undertaken to determine leadership styles of dental college principals in Lahore, using Bolman and Deal's leadership frames model, and to relate the leadership style to effectiveness of leadership and management. A questionnaire was administered to 43 faculty members in two dental colleges. Scores for the four leadership frames were calculated and related to effectiveness of leadership and management. Faculty perceived dental college principals to be strongest in the structural frame, followed closely by the human resource and symbolic frames, suggesting a multi-frame leadership orientation. The political frame was perceived as the weakest, but with high variance in ratings. The principals were perceived to be significantly more effective in management compared to leadership. There were no significant relationships between leadership frames and effectiveness of leadership and management