Publication: 20 March 2025 ISBN-13: 978-81-986038-6-9 Author: ETONGE NDELEY SAMUEL This research seeks to examine the relationship between Principals' Leadership Styles and School Climate in the Secondary Schools of the South Region of Cameroon. A total of 35 out of 268 secondary schools where selected randomly from the six divisions in the South West Region of Cameroon. In all, thirty five principals participated in answering the five itemed short open ended questionnaire. Meanwhile, 511 teachers participated in answering 36 questionnaire items on school climate and 12 questionnaire items on leadership styles. The Data was collected using the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire (OCDQ) developed by Halpin and Croft (1966:144-145). And the Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description Other (LEAD-Other) developed by the centre of Leadership Studies in Ohio University (1977:255). The Data was analyzed using percentages, frequencies, means and standard deviations for descriptive statistics purpose. The findings revealed that the leadership styles employed by the principals have negative implications for school climate. This finding led to the conclusion that majority of secondary schools of the South West Region of Cameroon have a closed and unhealthy school climate. Therefore the recommendation is that the Ministry of Secondary Education should organize workshops where experts shall expose to the school principals on how to create, improve and sustain good school climates in their leadership styles. The following suggestions were offered for further research, some of them include; "The strategies for creating and sustaining a positive climate in the Secondary schools of the South West of Cameroon," "The level of commitment in the secondary schools of the South West of Cameroon and its effects on the school's climate," The principals' level of authority with regards to disciplinary issues pertaining to teacher's behaviour."
