Preferred style of leader among UK primary school teachers: comparing social identity, transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire approaches

McIntyre, Caroline J and Schwarz, Abi and O’Siochru, Cathal and McIntyre, Jason C (2026) Preferred style of leader among UK primary school teachers: comparing social identity, transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire approaches. International Journal of Leadership in Education. ISSN 1360-3124

Text SECOND REVISED Manuscript without author details.docx - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (1MB)

Abstract

The UK is experiencing a teacher retention crisis, marked by increasing attrition rates and vacancies, highlighting the need for effective school leadership. No past work has investigated leadership preferences within UK primary school settings, nor compared more contemporary models of leadership, such as social identity leadership, to established models including transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership. This quantitative mixed-design study (within- and between-subjects factors) investigated the preferred leadership styles of UK primary school teachers, focusing on preferences for social identity leadership relative to alternative models. A secondary aim was to examine leadership preferences as a function of gender identity, age, and experience. One hundred and one current and former primary school teachers participated in an online survey adapted from the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and the Social Identity Leadership Inventory, enabling an evaluation of job satisfaction and retention in relation to three widely studied leadership styles and one emerging style. Results indicated a clear preference for social identity leadership across all demographic groups. These findings challenge established leadership assumptions and have important implications for leadership practices. Future research should examine these patterns across broader educational contexts and explore situational influences on leadership preferences.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information and Comments:	© 2026 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.
Keywords:	Teaching, leadership, transformational, transactional, laissez faire, social identity
Faculty / Department:	Faculty of Education and Social Sciences > School of Education
SWORD Depositor:	RISE Symplectic
Depositing User:	RISE Symplectic
Date Deposited:	09 Feb 2026 16:10
Last Modified:	09 Feb 2026 16:10
URI:	https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4830

Actions (login required)

View Item