LEADERSHIP PRACTICES AND MANAGEMENT STYLES OF MILLENIAL MIDLEVEL EDUCATIONAL LEADERS

Volume-09 Issue 11, November-2025 ISSN: 2456-9348 Impact Factor: 8.232 International Journal of Engineering Technology Research & Management (IJETRM) https://ijetrm.com/ IJETRM (http://ijetrm.com/) [312] LEADERSHIP PRACTICES AND MANAGEMENT STYLES OF MILLENIAL MIDLEVEL EDUCATIONAL LEADERS Mary Ann E. Rollan Teacher I, Dasmariñas Integrated High School, Philippines Gloria Geraldine S. Victoria Assistant School Principal II, Liliw Senior High School, Philippines ABSTRACT Leadership and management styles are one of the most critical competencies which school leaders are expected to possess as they lead their teachers towards the provision of sound school management. This study described and examined millennial school heads’ leadership practices and management styles among the selected public secondary schools in the Philippines. It employed a descriptive correlational research design which selected the participation of 150 public secondary school teachers in the Philippines. A developed survey-questionnaire was used. Results of the study revealed that that millennial school heads highly practiced transformational leadership, transactional leadership, servant leadership and participative leadership which enabled them to exhibit highest form of effective leadership. Also, the study asserted that millennial school heads immensely utilized democratic styles where they practiced inclusivity, collaboration and openness as they administer their schools. Thus, there was a positive correlation between millennial school heads’ leadership practices in terms of transformational leadership and their management styles in terms of democratic styles. This implied that as transformational leadership practices of millennial school heads increase, their use of democratic management styles also increases. Also, a proposed intervention program named “EmpowerED” was proposed. Keywords: leadership, practice, management, style, millennial, school heads, transformational, democratic INTRODUCTION The success of the schools in achieving its educational goals largely depends on the leadership and management styles of school’s heads. School heads serve as the leaders of their respective schools where vital operational, managerial and supervisory functions emanate from them. School heads commonly engage into comprehensive planning so as to ensure that all vital orders and directives from the Department of Education are proper implemented. Thus, school heads are also considered as the mothers/fathers of their respective schools where they commonly characterize a motherly or fatherly figure within the schools, for their teachers, learners and stakeholders. They serve as the primary bastion of effective decisions which are impliedly interpreted as correct and effective decisions. On the other hand, aside from the image imposed upon school heads, greater responsibilities are put on their shoulders as they are expected to perform with highest dignity and effective governance of schools as social institutions. In this line, school heads as they hold their position as leaders in the schools are trained and cultivated with the various leadership and management principles embodying the genuine forms of effective and productive public servants. In the Philippine educational context, school leaders do not only display effective leadership, but the totality of responsible, accountable and transparent leadership and management. Herein, leadership and management form the core part of school administration. The science of effective leadership and governance vitally underscore school administration. Along the voluminous tasks of school heads and the expectations imposed to them by general public, make their functions in the school more critical and vital for schools’ success. The ability of school heads in leading and managing the schools emanate from their varied personal and professional competence. As leaders in the schools, they are given with the primordial responsibility which is to help the school and its stakeholders obtain holistic development. Leadership and management of school heads are vital mechanisms towards excellence. With the voluminous researches published pertaining to the current leadership and management styles of schools, contextual and varied educational situations may pose diversity on school heads view about effective leadership and effective Volume-09 Issue 11, November-2025 ISSN: 2456-9348 Impact Factor: 8.232 International Journal of Engineering Technology Research & Management (IJETRM) https://ijetrm.com/ IJETRM (http://ijetrm.com/) [313] management styles in their respective schools. In this line, the researchers observed that most schools heads in their respective locality are founded with the proper leadership and management principles. However, they also observed that such leadership and management styles are continually changing based on the given educational circumstances which potentially influence their decision-making processes. The researchers further observed that most of the school heads in their locality exhibit different leadership and management styles which on one hand, pose confusion for teachers. Such confusion basically emerge when the researchers conducted a preliminary observations where they asked their colleagues as to the most impactful leadership and management styles used by the school heads. With this, the researchers ignited their interests in describing and examining school heads’ leadership and management styles. While school heads are appointed based on merits through careful and objective selection process, they are also possessing different demographic background. One of the apparent differences on school heads’ demographic background is their ages. This study focused on millennial school leaders whose ages range from 29 to 44 years old. The researchers observed that most of school heads are within the ages covering millennial generation. The data emerged from the collective observations to the different schools. Notably, this study emphasizes the leadership practices and management styles of millennial school heads as mid-level leaders. Apparently, the study also emphasized that mid-level educational leaders are school heads, who are responsible for managing teachers and translating into action. Supporting this, the researchers further observed that variations on leadership practices and management styles are highly evident in different schools. This arouse the interests of the researchers to describe and examine millennial school heads’ leadership practices and management styles in their respective schools. School heads in the middle to old-adult age are expected to be most effective leaders and significantly active in complying with the domains contained in Professional Standards for School Heads (PPSH). The latter contained a continuum of professional practice that supports school heads to pursue better career and serve as strong mechanism to ensure that effective and efficient school administration takes place. School heads embraced difficult fulfilling duties related to management, teaching and learning as well as managerial functions. Also, they given with different functions directing to the continuous improvement of the school specifically instructional leadership (Amancio, 2025). Different leadership practices are found within the functions of the school heads, instructional leadership styles is highly utilized by school heads to engage their teachers in delivering effective and efficient instruction. School heads heavily experienced administrative challenges when they pervasively utilized distributed instructional styles (Ortiz Jr. et al., 2025). School heads are agents of change who contribute a major impression on the educational milieu through their information-sharing methods, creating supportive social connection and fostering progress (Aquino et al., 2021). Further, school heads leadership styles are at very high extent specially on strategic leadership style that implicate their teachers’ teaching performance (Mariano & Oco, 2024). Apparently, school heads significantly employed all four leadership styles in varied levels such as transformational, transactional, authoritative and laissez-faire leadership styles (Abellanosa, 2025). Also, school heads always practiced sound management styles which enabled them to create sound and efficient management and supervisory functions. Hence, strategic thinking influenced instructional leadership of school heads (Hernandez et al., 2023). The researchers examined the in spite of the long list of published researches pertaining to school heads’ leadership and management styles, these studies failed to concentrate of millennial school heads’ leadership and management styles. In this, the researchers found that there is a strong knowledge gap. So, this study aimed to describe and examine millennial school heads’ leadership and management styles among the selected public secondary schools in the Philippines. This study supported the SDG 4 (Quality Education) as it may provide baseline for the development of strategic leadership and managerial interventions helping millennial school heads to develop or sustain their leadership and management practices. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to describe and examine millennial school heads’ leadership practices and management styles among the selected public secondary schools in the Philippines. Specifically, this study aimed to: 1. describe the respondents’ leadership practices in terms of transformational leadership, transactional leadership, servant leadership and participative leadership; 2. describe the respondents’ management styles in terms of autocratic management, democratic management and laissez faire management; Volume-09 Issue 11, November-2025 ISSN: 2456-9348 Impact Factor: 8.232 International Journal of Engineering Technology Research & Management (IJETRM) https://ijetrm.com/ IJETRM (http://ijetrm.com/) [314] 3. examine if there would be a significant relationship between millennial school heads’ leadership practices and management styles; 4. propose an intervention program which may help develop or sustain millennial school heads’ leadership practices and management styles Hypothesis The study hypothesized that there is no significant relationship between millennial school heads’ heads’ leadership practices and management styles. METHODOLOGY This study employed a descriptive correlational research design in order to describe and examine millennial school heads’ leadership practices and management styles among the selected public secondary schools in the Philippines. The study used a purposive sampling which selected the participation of 150 millennial school heads among the selected public secondary schools in the Philippines. The researchers used a researcher-made survey-questionnaire which contained two (2) parts. For part 1, it contained items relating to the leadership practices of millennial school heads while part 2 contained items relating to the management styles used by millennial school heads. The researchers used a Likert Scale of 4. For part 1, it used a 4-Likert Scale such as: 4Strongly Agree, 3-Agree, 2-Disagree and 1-Strongly Disagree. On one hand, similar scale was used for part 2 with different verbal descriptions such as: 4-Highly Utilized, 3-Utilized, 2-Slighly Utilized and 1-Not Utilized. The developed survey-questionnaire was subjected to validation and internal consistency measure. In the validation process, experts who comprised by three (3) graduate school professors holding doctorate degree in educational management, rated the developed survey-questionnaire as “excellent.” Thereafter, the researchers conducted a pilot test among the non-included respondents. Results on the reliability test showed that items under part 1 gained a Cronbach Alpha result of .912, described as highly acceptable while items under part 2, gained a Cronbach Alpha result of .921, also described as highly acceptable. On the other hand, the researchers used Google Form to administer their survey-questionnaire. The respondents were given a google form link which was sent to their personal email addresses. The researchers underwent on formal and technical processes of data collection, once all the raw data have been collected, the researchers organized the same for statistical computation. As to the data analysis technique, the researchers used mean, standard deviation and overall mean in order to describe the respondents’ leadership practices and management styles. On the other hand, the researchers used Pearson R in order to examine if there would be significant relationship between millennial school heads’ heads’ leadership practices and management styles. Thus, the researchers provided informed consent and conducted short briefing where they discussed the nature, intent and potential output of this study. After the finality of this study, raw data were destroyed through proper deletion on the researchers’ personal devices. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In view of educational leadership and management landscape, there are significant transformation transpired covering the emergence of millennial school heads who in their capacities, are entrusted with the greater responsibilities and expectations as leaders of the schools. As different generation steps into the roles of leadership and management, understanding different leadership and management styles are critical in order to understanding the prevailing circumstances surrounding school leadership and management. In this line, millennial leaders are characterized as adaptive and technology-proficient leaders. With this, current shifts on educational leadership and management took place. The description and examination of distinct leadership practices and management styles of millennial school heads are significant and comprehensive scholarly work which can provide significant inputs for policy development or the formulation of intervention program. 1. Leadership Practices of Millennial School Heads. The results showed that transformational leadership gained the highest mean score of 3.78, described as strongly agree. Also, the results revealed that transactional leadership gained a mean score of 3.67, described as strongly agree while servant leadership obtained a mean score of 3.58, described as strongly agree. Thus, participative leadership gained a mean score of 3.56, described as strongly agree. The results on transformational leadership implied that the respondents strongly agreed that transformational leadership was characterized by their ability to inspire and motivate their teachers and stakeholders which installed collaborative and innovative environment. In addition, the results showed that the respondents strongly agreed that they Volume-09 Issue 11, November-2025 ISSN: 2456-9348 Impact Factor: 8.232 International Journal of Engineering Technology Research & Management (IJETRM) https://ijetrm.com/ IJETRM (http://ijetrm.com/) [315] prioritized creating vision and positive environment through consistent encouragement for their teachers’ to embrace long-lasting development. Thus, the results on transactional leadership which gained a relative close mean score to transformational leadership, suggested that the respondents strongly agreed that they value clear structures, rewards and accountability. In this line, it also showed that the respondents strongly agreed that good performance were enabling indicators of a successful school head. On one hand, the results on servant leadership showed that the respondents strongly agreed that they place strong emphasis in the provision of their stakeholders needs and demands thereby, promoting trust and supportive school culture. Lastly, the result on participative leadership showed that respondents strongly agreed that they value the involvement of their teachers and stakeholders in decision-making process which potentially leads to the imposition of strong sense of ownership and collective responsibility. Thus, strong agreement across these leadership practices illustrates a balanced approach and effective leadership drive of millennial school heads towards the provision of effective school administration. Results of the study supported the study of Muncada (2025) which revealed that millennial school leaders exhibit strong leadership styles and imposed relevant leadership practices that helped the teachers performed their teaching responsibilities properly. Similar study also revealed that millennial school heads supported work-life balance and adhered to democratic form of leading and managing their schools. 2. Management Styles of Millennial School Heads. The results revealed that democratic style obtained the highest mean score of 3.92, described as highly utilized while autocratic and laissez faire styles both gained a mean score of 3.71, also described as highly utilized. The results on democratic style showed that respondents highly utilized democratic management style whereas this reflected the respondents’ inclination to collaboration and inclusivity as well as shared responsibility within their school environment. The results further showed that respondents highly utilized democratic style in order to emphasize open communication which enabled them to empower their teachers and the stakeholders. Meanwhile, the results on autocratic and laissez faire, although both obtain high mean scores, this indicated that millennial school heads also highly utilized unilateral decision-making in some critical situations where their sole decisions are a must. Thus, the results also implied that respondents adopt decisions in order to impose clear direction before their teachers. On one hand, the respondents also highly utilized laissez faire management style which they allowed their teachers to operate independently and let them to provide clear self-direction provided that their actions were not against on the rules and regulations set forth by the school, community and the state in general. Results of the study supported the study of Mandap (2023) which asserted that millennial school leaders intentionally adopted democratic style, authoritative and instructional styles to tackle the challenges they encounter in overseeing educational institutions. 3. Relationship Between Millennial School Heads’ Leadership Practices and Management Styles. There was a positive correlation between millennial school heads’ leadership practices in terms of transformational leadership and their management styles in terms of democratic styles (r=.409). This implied that as transformational leadership practices of millennial school heads increase, their use of democratic management styles also increases. Millennial school heads promote new ideas fostering an environment where they valued and respect their teachers and subordinates. They also focused on empowering their subordinates by building trust and collaboration. Notably, millennial school heads also involved their subordinates for effective decision-making process. Apparently, results of the study supported the study of Cruz and Barrameda (2023) which concluded that millennial generation of school heads immensely emphasized leadership direction and organizational acclimation which guided their subordinates towards development and effective instructions. Thus, the results implicated that the importance of adopting proper and relevant leadership practices and management styles could foster collaboration and innovation. 4. Proposed Intervention Program. This study proposed a skeletal frame of an intervention program which may help millennial school heads sustain their leadership practices and proper use of diverse school management styles. The program aims to enhance the transformational leadership skills, promote democratic management practices and improve school culture. The proposed name for the intervention program was “EmpowEd.” This would provide series of technical leadership and management workshop within the schools or districts where it would emphasize the key principles of transformational leadership, socio-emotional intelligence and effective communication. Also, part of Volume-09 Issue 11, November-2025 ISSN: 2456-9348 Impact Factor: 8.232 International Journal of Engineering Technology Research & Management (IJETRM) https://ijetrm.com/ IJETRM (http://ijetrm.com/) [316] the proposed intervention program was the administration of technical discussion which would emphasize participative decision-making process and team building. The same program would be assessed through the use of objective evaluation which would be developed by researchers as proponents of the program. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The researchers would like to express their sincerest gratitude for all individuals and groups who have helped them complete this study. Also, they were deeply indebted to their families and friends who have supported them in finishing this work. Above all, to God the Highest, they were deeply blessed and honored in Him as He gave them strength and wisdom to complete this work. CONCLUSION There were significant transformation transpired covering the emergence of millennial school heads who in their capacities, are entrusted with the greater responsibilities and expectations as leaders of the schools. The study found out that millennial school heads highly practiced transformational leadership, transactional leadership, servant leadership and participative leadership which enabled them to exhibit highest form of effective leadership. Also, the study asserted that millennial school heads immensely utilized democratic styles where they practiced inclusivity, collaboration and openness as they administer their schools. Thus, there was a positive correlation between millennial school heads’ leadership practices in terms of transformational leadership and their management styles in terms of democratic styles. This implied that as transformational leadership practices of millennial school heads increase, their use of democratic management styles also increases. 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