The Relationship between Principals’ Perception of their Leadership Style and Positive Attitudes towards Change in the Light of COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused one of the largest disruptions in world education systems ever in history. This situation has greatly affected the educational systems, causing unprecedented pressure “from above” and the need for strategically unpredictable changes in educational organisations. The COVID-19 pandemic is a recent example of a globally imposed change for nations across the globe. Unlike the organisational change research that has existed so far, school principals have simultaneously become change initiators and executors in their school in the context of this imposed change. In this case, school principals may hold negative attitudes towards the change, and thus resist change implementation and do not support their school community members. Therefore, the paper examines whether, and to what extent, school principals’ leadership style (adaptive, distributed, collaborative) predicts their positive attitudes towards change. For this purpose, 229 school principals from Lithuania took part in this study. A quantitative research strategy, using adaptive, collaborative, and distributed leadership, and attitude towards change scales, was applied. The findings from multiple linear regression reveal that adaptive, distributed, and collaborative leadership styles are positively related to their positive attitudes towards change. More specifically, adaptive leadership is the strongest predictor for school principals’ positive attitudes towards change. The study uncovers the under researched connection between the leadership style and attitudes towards change in the light of the imposed changes and gives practical implications for the future.