Management of Organizational Stress for Principals Administrative Effectiveness in Secondary Schools in Kogi State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the management of organizational stress for principals’ administrative effectiveness in secondary schools in Kogi State, Nigeria. Based on the objectives, three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of this study comprised all the 909 principals and vice-principals from which a sample of 150 principals and vice-principals (50 principals and 100 vice-principals) was drawn from 50 secondary schools using multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire tagged “Management of Organizational Stress for Principals’ Administrative Effectiveness Questionnaire (MOSPAEQ)” developed by the researcher. The instrument was validated by three experts and the reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach alpha, which yielded a coefficient of 0.91. In analyzing the data, mean scores and standard deviation were used as the statistical tools to answer the research questions, while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed among others that, the ways of managing psychological stress for principals’ administrative effectiveness in secondary schools include: removing fear of being fired or demoted from the job, feeling mentally balanced, limiting error rates in the performance of administrative duties, having improved mental health issues, regular external administrative visits, involving staff members in decision making, having rest when needed, positive reinforcement, and being active in presenting reports in the presence of inspection team increases principals’ administrative effectiveness. The test of hypothesis showed no significant difference was found between the mean scores of principals and vice-principals on the management of psychological stress for principals’ administrative effectiveness in secondary schools in Kogi State. Based on the findings, it was recommended that, principals of secondary schools should adopt team building spirit in executing administrative duties to avoid psychological stress to enhance their administrative effectiveness.