Leadership characteristics of employees in school systems in the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Serbia

Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine the presence of leadership characteristics and features in the employees of the educational institutions in Croatia and Serbia. Research tasks have been realized by comparing the answers of the respondents from Croatia and Serbia in relation to the evaluation of professional and leadership characteristics and personality traits, examined by the survey and scaling techniques, instruments in the form of a questionnaire and an attitude scale. The research population consists of elementary and secondary schools found on the territories of the entire Croatia and Serbia, while the research sample consists of 237 principals, teachers, professors, assistants in schools who have participated in the research in Croatia and 252 respondents who have participated in the research in Serbia. The statistical SPSS package was used for data processing (factor scores at Promax extracted dimensions, correlations and discriminant analysis). The data point to the more favourable results in the case of the participants from Croatia who, in relation to their colleagues in Serbia, show more expressed leadership characteristics.