Navigating School Infrastructural Projects in Zimbabwe: The Roles of Leadership Styles, Political Interference and Stakeholder Participation.

Abstract

The article explores the challenges faced by school administrators in implementing new projects in primary schools in Buhera District, Zimbabwe. Primary data were collected through a questionnaire administered to 103 purposively selected participants and interviews conducted with ten school administrators from 10 purposively selected schools in Buhera District. Stata 17 Software and Nvivo 12 Software were used to analyse quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. The study found a significant positive statistical relationship between leadership styles and project implementation and a significant negative association between political interference and project implementation. However, the relationship between stakeholder involvement and project implementation was found to be insignificant. Additional analyses of the results indicated that stakeholder involvement and leadership styles encouraged payment of fees, as the respondents opined that parents were willing to honour their fees payment obligation when they believed that the projects that the schools intended to roll out brought benefits to the entire community. However, the relationship between availability of funds, which determined the schools’ capacity to implement projects, was insignificant, which suggest that, owing to weak internal control systems, some of the school administrators corruptly misappropriated funds intended for income-generating projects. Overall, the study found that leadership styles constitute the major challenge faced by school administrators in implementing new projects.