Kuwait and USA Data Comparison
The results of the ANOVA showed a significant difference in the communication level between the Kuwait and the USA principals which indicates the difference in leadership styles between the two countries. Kuwait principals tend to be authoritative in their leadership style while the USA principals are more integrative. Additionally, the data of the schools’ environments in both cultures revealed the same trend; cooperation and collaboration exists in both schools’ cultures. Table 9 (Appendix) summarizes the level of cooperation in Kuwait and the USA cultures.
There was a large difference in the percentage of schools, between the two cultures, that officially promote cooperation (100% in Kuwait and 57% in the USA, Table 9, Appendix). Cooperation, however, is encouraged in both cultures (100%) and the actual cooperation was found to be similar as well (92.6% in Kuwait and 90.7 % in the USA). This shows that in spite of the principal’s leadership style, the same results are produced – a cooperative environment. This finding suggests that there is not a universal principal leadership style that will result in the same environmental outcome. The school’s outcome (student academic achievement) in both cultures show similar models of each culture. Figure 10 (Appendix) and Figure 11(Appendix) compare the mathematics and science academic achievement, respectively, of the students in the Kuwait and the USA schools.
Similar to the school’s environment trend, the academic achievements of the students of both cultures almost match one another. The mode in both Kuwait and the USA samples is “Agree”, indicating a reasonably high academic achievement in each. These results indicate that although the principals’ leadership style is different in the two
Research in Higher Education Journal
The effect of principles, page 14
cultures (authoritative in Kuwait and integrative in the USA), both styles create the same school environment (cooperative) and school outcome (academic achievement).
By comparing the Kuwait and the USA models, it was concluded that their cultures had great impact on their principal’s leadership style, yet there was no unique and universal leadership style that always achieved an increase in school outcome. In some cultures, the authoritative principals’ leadership style was the appropriate style to achieve the high outcome of the school, while in other cultures the integrative style was the appropriate style. This explanation is probably dependent on how each culture perceives power, authority, and relationships in the work place and in their society in general.