Development and Validation of The Structural Model of Leadership Characteristics Among High School Directors In Cambodia

Abstract

The study addressed four objectives: to identify the leadership characteristics reported by Cambodian high school directors; to examine whether those characteristics differed by age, gender, educational qualification, and work experience; to estimate the statistical contribution of the nine characteristics to the modeled outcome; and to develop a leadership characteristics model for school directors in Cambodia. The study used a quantitative design with 130 high school directors. The researcher developed the questionnaire from the Survey of Transformational Leadership framework, established instrument validity, used back-translation and field testing for the Khmer versions, and obtained expert feedback through a focus group while developing the leadership characteristics model. This study used descriptive and inferential procedures to analyze the data. The principal results were: (1) Cambodian school directors' leadership characteristics were high (M = 3.96, SD = 0.37). Among the nine characteristics, Inspirational Motivation had the highest mean score (M = 4.20, SD = 0.40), while Supports Others had the lowest (M = 3.51, SD = 0.39). Ranked from highest to lowest mean scores, the characteristics were Inspirational Motivation, Encourages Innovation, Expects Excellence, Integrity, Task Delegation, Develops Others, Sensible Risk, Demonstrates Innovation, and Supports Others; (2) the results indicated that leadership characteristics did not differ significantly according to gender (p = .755), age (p = .059), or educational qualification (p = .678). However, work experience differed significantly (p = .024); (3) multiple regression analysis indicated that the manuscript reported statistically significant associations for all nine predictors at the .05 level; these coefficients and p-values should be checked against the original regression output before publication. The regression model produced R = .859, R² = .738, and Adjusted R² = .718, indicating that the nine characteristics collectively explained 73.8% of the observed variance in the dependent variable, with an adjusted estimate of 71.8%; and (4) based on the empirical findings, the researcher developed a leadership characteristics model and subsequently had experts review it. The model was proposed as a framework to support the continuing professional development of Cambodian high school directors and could also be used as a reference for developing teacher leaders and deputy school directors. Because other factors may influence school directors’ leadership characteristics, future research should examine additional personal, organizational, and contextual factors that may contribute to leadership development.