Leadership Styles in Childcare Directors

Leadership is of paramount importance to any organization, as leaders can set the tone for the organization's employees. The path to leadership in childcare can be markedly different from other professions, as there is no qualifying criteria; however, previous research has identified that for leaders to be effective they must possess skills, characteristics, and traits of effective leadership. The present study used The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (in Bass and Avolio, Multifactor leadership questionnaire (TM), Mind Garden, Inc., Menlo Park, 1995) with childcare directors to determine their self-identified leadership styles including transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant to determine if their leadership style was consistent with recommendations from the field. Results suggest that childcare directors who remain in the role of managers (displaying either transactional or passive/avoidant leadership styles) do not provide the leadership needed to provide a high quality of education for young children, which is consistent with previous research. This research echoes concern from the field for credentialing of childcare directors.