CORRELATION BETWEEN COLLABORATIVE LEADERSHIP AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF OFFICE TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT STUDENTS IN SOUTHWESTERN FEDERAL POLYTECHNICS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The interconnectedness of leadership with learning outcomes in various institutions at various in Nigeria has gained notable traction in contemporary scholarly discourse. This has often necessitated the crucial need to change the traditional leadership approach to a more collaborative leadership for a better educational outcome. On this thrust, the paper empirically examined the correlation between collaborative leadership and academic performance of Office Technology and Management (OTM) students in Southwestern Federal Polytechnics in Nigeria. The descriptive survey of the correlational type was guided by two research questions and one null hypothesis. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 150-year II Higher National Diploma students in the Federal Polytechnics in Southwestern Nigeria. Collaborative Leadership in Office Technology and Management Questionnaire (CLOTMQ) with a reliability coefficient of 0.85 was used for data collection while the hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. Richard Kuderson and multiple regression statistical tools were used for data analysis. The findings of the study reveal that the collaborative leadership indicators made 64.0% (R²=0.64) contributions to OTM students’ academic performance. The correlation coefficient of each of the collaborative leadership indicators ranged between 0.586 and 0.626. Leadership with students’ freedom( r=0.626 ;62.6%) made the highest contribution to the students’ academic performance, and leadership with students’ participation in decision making (r=0.586 ;58.6%) made the least contribution, and there is a statistically significant  positive correlation between collaborative leadership indicators and the academic performance of the students(<0.05).It is recommended that OTM students should be more involved in the teaching and learning process and the leadership of higher institutions should prioritize collaborative leadership practices for  better students’ academic performance.