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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 11, No. 8
Publication Date: August 25, 2023
DOI:10.14738/abr.118.15335.
Dahir, M. A., Kathula, D. N., & Machoka, P. (2023). Relationship Between Integrative Leadership and Performance of Public
Boarding Secondary Schools in Selected Counties Under the FCDC Kenya: The Mediating Effect of Employee Motivation. Archives
of Business Research, 11(8). 218-256.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Relationship Between Integrative Leadership and Performance of
Public Boarding Secondary Schools in Selected Counties Under
the FCDC Kenya: The Mediating Effect of Employee Motivation
Mohamed Abdinoor Dahir
Management and Leadership,
School of Management and Leadership,
The Management University of Africa, Kenya
Domeniter Naomi Kathula
Management and Leadership,
School of Management and Leadership,
The Management University of Africa, Kenya
Paul Machoka
Management and Leadership,
School of Management and Leadership,
The Management University of Africa, Kenya
ABSTRACT
An integrative leadership framework from an educational perspective is vital in
understanding the efforts that are put in by school leaders to support overall
school performance. Integrated leadership is also critical in the management and
the development of partnerships aimed at increasing the quality of school
performance. An integrative kind of leadership motivates members of the school
community to maximize their overall performance. Integrative leadership
combines the qualities of servant leadership, authentic leadership, and value- based leadership while simultaneously addressing their weaknesses. This paper
sought to ascertain the mediating effect of employee motivation on the
relationship between integrative leadership and the performance of public
boarding secondary schools in selected Counties under the FCDC Kenya. This
paper critiqued empirical studies linking the relationship between integrative
leadership and performance and the mediating role of employee motivation. This
study adopted a pragmatism research philosophy. This study also triangulated
data using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The target population
included all public boarding secondary schools from four FCDC Counties namely
Lamu, Isiolo, Samburu, and Wajir. The study also targeted student leaders,
teachers, principals, stakeholders (Board of Management representatives, County,
and Teachers Service Commissions (TSC) Directors). The sample included 300
student leaders from 16 public boarding secondary schools in four FCDC Counties.
A sample of 96 teachers, 16 principals, 16 Board of Management (BOM)
stakeholders, 4 county directors of education and 4 TSC county directors; and 4
representatives of development partners also formed part of the sampling units.
Therefore, the total sample size was four hundred and forty (N=440).
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Dahir, M. A., Kathula, D. N., & Machoka, P. (2023). Relationship Between Integrative Leadership and Performance of Public Boarding Secondary
Schools in Selected Counties Under the FCDC Kenya: The Mediating Effect of Employee Motivation. Archives of Business Research, 11(8). 218-256.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.118.15335
Questionnaires were used to gather information from the teachers and students
while interview guides were used to gather information from the school
principals, BOM representatives, and County Directors of education. Interview
guides were open-ended and detailed. Data was analysed using both quantitative
and qualitative data analysis approaches based on the research objectives.
Descriptive statistics was used to summarize quantitative data and the results
were presented in frequencies and percentages, while inferential statistics were
used to test the study hypothesis. Qualitative data on the other hand was
summarized and reported in themes. The study revealed that integrative
leadership has a significant relationship with the performance of public boarding
secondary schools in selected Counties under FCDC Kenya. Further, the study
findings indicated a partial mediating effect on the mediating role of employee
motivation on the relationship between integrative leadership and school
performance.
Keywords: Integrative Leadership, Employee Motivation, Performance of Public
Boarding Secondary Schools, Frontier Counties Development Council (FCDC)
INTRODUCTION
Integrative leadership is an emergent theory that aims to define effective leadership.
Integrated leadership is critical in the management and the development of partnerships
aimed at increasing the quality of school performance (Yuniawan & Putri, 2017). In essence,
integrative leadership combines the qualities of servant leadership, authentic leadership, and
value-based leadership while simultaneously addressing their weaknesses (De Oliveira & De
Lacerda, 2015). Examining the concept of educational leadership in the US school’s context,
integrative management is built to hearten and generate a collaborative school domain for
preferable school results than schools with imposing forms of school leadership (Al-Safran,
Brown & Wiseman, 2014). Upright school management diligently entails teachers in making
decisions, and these are restricted to top-level school performance (Ingersoll, Sirinides &
Dougherty, 2018).
In the South African context, there is evidence that there exist linkages between integrative
leadership and management and learning outcomes. A common thread emerging through
previous studies is the educational value of managing time-on-task and curriculum coverage
although more recent evidence suggests that the efficacy of these management practices in
raising learning may be mediated through teacher capacity (Wills, 2019).
In Ghana, teachers’ emolument accounted for less than 35% of the public service wage bill
although teachers were perceived to be in the majority in terms of numbers (Forson & Opoku,
2014). This phenomenon did spark a wave of attrition of trained teachers to other sectors of
the Ghanaian economy (Forson & Opoku, 2014).
The ASAL Counties of Kenya accommodate nearly 30 percent of the entire country’s
population. The major economic activity carried out in these areas includes pastoralism and
small-scale farming (Harison, Mark & Imwati, 2017). Most of the frontier counties are part of
Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) which comprise 23 of the 47 counties. The
Frontier Counties Development Council is a regional grouping formed by the counties of