Author/s:
Ibrahim, Ali*
United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates (ali_saidebrahim@uaeu.ac.ae)
Mahmoud, Sherin
United Arab Emirates University, United Arab Emirates (200950017@uaeu.ac.ae)
Abstract:
This study described principals’ communication styles and investigated their relationships to school performance in Al Ain city government schools in the UAE. Data were collected through a questionnaire of 50 items. Six hundred sixty seven male and female staff out of a total population of 2240 in 40 schools responded to the questionnaire. Then, semi-structured phone interviews with 11 participants were conducted to collect qualitative data. The results showed that principals in Al Ain schools are almost always expressive in their communication. They almost never act aggressively or use moodiness or threat. The results showed also that participants attributed high performance to the principal’s supportiveness style. When the school was used as the unit of analysis, the preciseness style of the principal had the highest correlation coefficient with high performance. Finally, the study found that styles of moodiness and threat were correlated negatively with school performance.
Keywords: school principals; communication styles; school performance; UAE
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2016.1421
*Corresponding Author