Abstract

• The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between principals’ leadership styles and teachers’ followership styles at Basic Education High Schools in Nyaung Shwe Township. The theoretical framework of this study was developed based on Hersey, Blanchard (1996, as cited in Safitri & Fahmi, 2014) and Kelley (1992, as cited in Safitri & Fahmi, 2014). Mixed method (quantitative and qualitative) was used in this study. For quantitative study, 255 teachers from 11 selected schools participated in this study. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) was 0.854. According quantitative analysis, principals from schools in Nyaung Shwe Township mostly exhibited telling leadership styles and teachers from schools mostly exhibited conformist followership styles. Furthermore, according to integration model, out of 11 selected schools, 7 schools (S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6 and S9) were found that principals’ leadership style corresponded with teachers’ followership style. And then, 4 schools (S7, S8, S10 and S11) were found that principals’ leadership style did not correspond with teachers’ followership style. According to the results, if the principals cannot exhibit the correspondent leadership styles, the improvement of schools will not be achieved as they wished. Moreover, if the principals exhibit the correspondent leadership style with teachers’ followership styles, the teachers will be happy to stay at their schools and they will try their best and they will perform the schools’ activities actively and as the result, the school will improve.