Influence of Deans' and Heads of Department's Management Style on Students' Academic Performance in Public Universities in Rivers State

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of Deans' and Heads of Departments’ management style on students' academic performance in public universities. The focus was on three areas of management style: leadership communication, decision-making approach, and student academic monitoring. The study was guided by three research questions and three null hypotheses tested at a 0.05 level of significance. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population consisted of 267 academic administrators, comprising all Deans and Heads of Departments in the public universities under study. Due to the manageable size, the entire population was used without sampling. Data were collected using a researcher-designed questionnaire titled "Influence of Deans' and Heads of Department's Management Style and Student Academic Performance Questionnaire (IDHDMSSAPQ)", consisting of 20 items arranged into four clusters. The instrument was validated by three experts in Educational Management and Measurement and Evaluation. Reliability was established using the Cronbach Alpha method, yielding coefficients of 0.84, 0.86, 0.85, and 0.87 for the respective clusters, and an overall reliability of 0.86. The researcher personally distributed and retrieved the questionnaires to ensure a high return rate, resulting in 261 valid responses. Data were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, and independent sample t-tests were used to test the hypotheses at a 0.05 significance level. Findings showed that leadership communication, decision-making approaches, and student academic monitoring were seen to positively influence students’ academic performance. The highest influence was observed in academic monitoring, which was strongly supported by the respondents. However, there was no significant difference between the responses of Deans and Heads of Departments, leading to the retention of all three null hypotheses. Based on the findings, it was recommended that universities improve feedback systems for academic guidance, provide training on transparent decision-making, and adopt early monitoring strategies to support students who are at risk academically.