ABSTRACT 

This study examined the Management Styles of Principals as Correlate of Teachers’ Work Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Abia State, Nigeria. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. A sample of 344 respondents was drawn from the population of 3,357 principals and teachers in the three education zones in the state was used for the study. The instruments for data collection were 44-item questionnaire titled Management Style of Principal’s Questionnaire (MSPQ) and 15-item Teachers’ Work Performance Questionnaire (TWPQ) which were all developed by the researcher. The instruments were validated by three experts, two from the Department of Educational Management and one from Measurement and Evaluation, from the Department of Science Education all in College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State. The Cronbach Alpha statistic was used to determine the internal consistency of the instruments. These yielded 0.83 and 0.86 for MSPQ and TWPQ respectively. Five research assistants helped in data collection. Pearson product moment correlation was used to answer the seven research questions raised for the study while regression analysis was used to test the seven null hypotheses that guided the study at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed among others that transformation and Managing-by-walking-around management styles of Principals significantly relate with teachers’ work performance in secondary schools to a very high extent while paternalistic and directive management styles of principals moderately relate with teachers’ work performance.  Based on the findings recommended among others that school principals should be encouraged to use those management styles that enhance teachers’ work performance to high extent and use less of those that do not enhance it at low extent