THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN IMPROVING STAFF PERFORMANCE OF PRIVATE PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

: Principals from the primary levels upward are failing to share leadership understanding, skills, and attitudes with staff, and many school principals are facing significant issues with leading their schools. Principals need to have knowledge of leadership and know how to improve their staff performance. The research established the correlation between transformational leadership and staff performance at private primary schools in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This research used the Pearson correlation coefficient and a quantitative approach in SPSS version 25 with 100 respondents from private primary schools. As a result, this study answered the research hypotheses that there were statistically significant positive correlations between transformational leadership and staff performance (r = 0.44, p = 0.01). The findings are carefully examined and significant, and the results proved that the research is fruitful and achievable in improving staff performance in Cambodia. For future studies, researchers should apply different leadership styles to improve principals’ leadership in Cambodia.


INTRODUCTION
The principal's leadership style, skills, and abilities can significantly affect how well teachers do their jobs, how well lessons are taught, and how well students do in school. Principal development should therefore be high on the action agenda for preparing school leaders. Moreover, school leaders play a crucial role in defining school goals and ensuring those goals are achieved, monitoring and evaluating teacher performance, improving Jurnal As-Salam, Vol. 7 No. 1 Januari -Juni 2023 (Print ISSN 2528-1402, Online ISSN 2549 https://jurnal-assalam.org/index.php/JAS Rotana Sek | 28 their initial expectations, enhancing productivity, and influencing employees to support the institution's objectives and ambitions (AL-Awamleh, 2020). Transformational leadership promotes followers and independent ideas by enhancing culture. Workplace success and capacity-building are fostered by Transformational leadership. Hence, staff performance includes a wide range of organizational actions that affect job performance. Task and contextual variables were established through cultural and job-related studies (Jyoti & Bhau, 2015;Carlos & Rodrigues, 2016). The researcher wants to discover how Transformational leadership affects staff performance in private primary schools in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is to fill the gaps where studies have not yet been done before. Furthermore, the research hypothesis declares H01: There is no relationship between staff performance and Transformational leadership. There are eight more sub-hypotheses to support the research hypothesis, which will be mentioned in the findings and discussion section.

LITERATURE REVIEW
With little help from the private sector and a partnership that still needs to perform the watchdog role, the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport (MoEYS) has made limited development in implementing accountable actions at the district and school levels (Kim & Rouse, 2011).

Educational System during Pol Pot Regime
The Khmer Rouge abolished formal education in 1975; they banned it, burning teaching materials, textbooks, and publishing firms seen as symbols of the monarchy and capitalist socioeconomic order that their revolution meant to overthrow. Schools and universities were closed, and some structures were repurposed. Thousands of skilled principals, teachers, professors, researchers, and technicians died of sickness or malnutrition during this period. Educators and other members of the educated classes who managed to survive the upheaval departed the nation. The Khmer Rouge had destroyed all social institutions in the years before, pushing the population to live communally and engage in collective agriculture for their basic survival. Due to the significant loss of intellectuals as a result of famine, hard labor, and summary execution, education was provided by teachers with limited material and pedagogical competence, and school buildings were either closed down or destroyed (Bunlay et al., 2010;Ogisu & Williams, 2016).

Primary Education in Cambodia
Over the past five years, primary school net enrolment has increased to 98% and completion to 80%. Primary schools are found worldwide and are growing. In 2017-18, 532 unfinished and 53 disadvantaged schools closed. The MoEYS Education Conference reported that more students started school at the correct age. It illustrates that Cambodians value education, that schools are accessible to their homes, and that schools are pleasant, especially in distant and destitute locations. The dropout and repetition rates also demonstrate that primary education has improved over the past five years.

Roles of Primary School Principals
The principal traditionally communicates high standards to teachers and students, supervises instruction, monitors assessment and student achievement, coordinates the school's curriculum, promotes an atmosphere of learning, and fosters a supportive work environment. In recent years, principals have moved from "inspectors of teacher competency" to "facilitators of teacher growth." This shift involves working with instructors to encourage reflection, conversation, professional development, and learning communities (Mestry et al., 2014).

Private Primary Schools
Private schools: (a) chose their students and parents; (b) did not have teachers who were part of a union; (c) raised money through tuition and donations; (d) had a smaller bureaucracy; and (e) did not have to take part in federal and state-mandated activities related to educational policy. Private schools offer pre-primary, primary, secondary, technical, and vocational education. Teachers and principals implement the most curriculum. The essential aspect of the curriculum is its flexibility, which allows administrators to change implementation methods. Principals' abilities determine this. Most good schools are rated by kids' standardized test performance, resources, and opportunities. Curriculum management by an administrator determines a school's success. So, administrators' curriculum management methods must be examined and criticized to improve schools (Pilli, 2014).

The Policy of the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport and the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia
MoEYS has four key policies from which sub-policies and initiatives have developed. The Department of Planning, MoEYS publishes the Chart of Education Indicators every year, which includes these noteworthy initiatives from 1996. The chart's format and content have changed, but MoEYS' policy section has not: (i) universalize nine years of primary education and develop chances for functional literacy; (ii) modernize and improve education through effective reform; (iii) link education/training with the job market and society; and (iv) rehabilitate and develop the youth and sport subsector (Okado et al., 2003). Education is covered in the 1993 Kingdom of Cambodia Constitution. "The State shall provide primary and secondary education to all individuals in public schools," according to Article 68 of the Constitution, safeguarding citizens' rights to quality education through a standardized system. Implementing agencies can also change curriculum, pedagogy, and foreign languages to better education. The state has complete control over public and private schools, it underlines. State-provided primary and secondary education is mandatory for all people. In some policy documents, the word "free" has been added to this stipulation (Okado et al., 2003).

Transformational Leadership (TL)
This leadership style clarifies the corporate mission, encourages staff to take chances, finds creative approaches to problems in the workplace, and drives staff to accomplish Jurnal As-Salam Vol. goals. Positive interpersonal relationships are the foundation of this brand of influential leadership. Communication is king, too. The "transformation" dimension refers to the courage and willingness of our staff to adapt to their jobs and become more innovative (Authors, 2015). Transformational leadership is the concept of inspiring staff to work towards their firm's goal or vision. Transformational leaders will create, communicate, and act as role models for their teams (Pongpearchan, 2016). TL refers to a strategy in which leaders inspire their members to pursue organizational objectives and priorities that go beyond expectations. Transformational leaders will change organizations through their vision for the future and allow staff to move organizations from low-performance to decent and higher through clear views and Transformational leadership. Furthermore, transformational leaders have dedicated themselves to staff needs and are convinced they will improve their challenges, emotions, and negative points (Jensen et al., 2020). On the other hand, the Transformational leadership style has its own four dimensions: idealized influence, Individual Consideration, Intellectual stimulation, and Inspirational motivation (Jha & Malviya, 2017;Shafi et al., 2020).

Idealized influence
These leaders are more competent, consistent, and determined. This characteristic makes corporate managers steadier and more risk-taking. They possess superior honesty and determination. Leaders provide responsibilities to followers out of respect for them. In this context, followers do their obligations and strive to reach the objective. It is how leaders inspire their teams.

Inspirational motivation
They inspire others to succeed. Leaders inform followers of upcoming events and the organization's future aims and vision. Leaders encouraging followers to voice new ideas gives them the confidence to express their inner sentiments and unique ideas (Jha & Malviya, 2017;Shafi et al., 2020).

Intellectual stimulation
Leaders believe followers have enough capacity to succeed. Leaders praise creative followers but do not blame them if they do not follow. Intellectual stimulation improves problem-solving skills, creative thinking, and problem-solving. However, it encourages challenging the current quo and using much imagination. They ignore other influences and focus on the task in this situation. Hence, issue resolution motivates followers.

Individualized consideration
Leaders focus on people. Followers enjoy the unique direction. Leaders help teams achieve goals and receive money and praise. Face-to-face communication benefits leaders and subordinates. Leaders might give followers projects and feel like they are learning this leadership dimension. On the other hand, leaders gave them discretionary rights to satisfy job demands and follow directions, so they desired to work and prove themselves.

Staff Performance
Employee performance is best judged using both announced and unannounced tools. Such instruments must be designed for a specific situation (Courson et al., 2014). Performance is viewed as the result of completing a physical, material, non-physical, or Jurnal As-Salam Vol. 7 No. 1 Januari -Juni 2023: 26 -41 Rotana Sek | 31 non-material task. Performance results from the individual's work output in terms of quality and quantity (Lee & Hidayat, 2018). Two types of job performance exist Task performance and Contextual performance. Examine first the most common features emphasized in the studies analyzed: job knowledge, organizational skills, efficiency, tenacity, cooperation, organizational consciousness, personal attributes, and interdependence. Work knowledge, organizational skills, and efficacy are the three components of task performance. Moreover, Contextual performance involves sustained effort, cooperation, organizational conscientiousness, personal characteristics, and interpersonal and relationship abilities (Carlos & Rodrigues, 2016).

Task performance
Task performance covers all employee actions and activities that must be done formally in the working process and knowledge and facts about job principles. It covers actions that contribute to a company's fundamental transformation and maintenance tasks, such as creating items, selling products or services, obtaining inventories, managing subordinates, or delivering services (Adler & Benbunan-Fich, 2012;Koopmans, 2014;Jyoti & Bhau, 2015).

Contextual performance
Contextual performance refers to employees' activities that require them to engage and cooperate with others and perform them in ways that go beyond their job description to complete job-specific duties. Contextual behaviors increase communication and social interaction and lessen tension and disruptive emotions (Jyoti & Bhau, 2015).

Theories Related to Transformational Leadership and Staff Performance The path-goal theory on transformational leadership
Path-Goal Theory says leaders make workers happy. Management ensures personnel performs well and with increasing demand. According to the Path-Goal Theory, influential leaders improve Staff performance by providing information, support, and resources (Oyebisi & Akinlabi, 2013). By the Path-goal Theory, leaders can adopt any of the following four leadership styles, or a mix together, based on subordinate characteristics and contextual factors: (1) Direct leadership needs leaders to effectively communicate goals, timetables, regulations, and processes to followers. (2) Supportive leadership encourages subordinates to approach their leader. (3) Participative leadership includes all members in the decision-making process. (4) Leadership focused on achieving results inspires sustained excellence (Bans-akutey, 2021).

Socioanalytic theory on staff performance
Researchers use Socioanalytic theory and thorough meta-analyses to consider what is known about personality and leadership, job performance, and work behavior (Gottlieb & Gøtzsche-Astrup, 2020). Socioanalytic theory tries to determine how managers' social skills affect how they evaluate their subordinates' performance. At first, the socio-analytic theory was criticized because it needed to explain why superiors' assessments of subordinates' personality traits and job performance were often unclear and contradictory (Hogan et al., 1985).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research Design
The researcher chooses a quantitative research design, mostly collecting numbers to answer specific questions. Furthermore, it is quick and dependable, which appeals to many researchers (Yilmaz, 2013).

Participants in the Research
The researcher applied simple random sampling because Lavrakas (2008) said it was an essential convenience for completing a survey design in quantitative research. Also, the researcher uses Qualtrics' sample size calculator to determine how many people should be in the sample. For example, when the population is 501, the sample size is 100 based on ±0.9% of the desired level of precision (Naing, 2003). Also, the simple random sampling technique is applied in this study. Therefore, 100 teachers were randomly chosen from private primary schools in Phnom Penh.

Data Collection
This study was conducted using a questionnaire as a tool. This questionnaire was given to private primary school teachers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Demographic data comes first, followed by Transformational leadership leaders (principals) and Staff performance (teachers). Moreover, the questionnaire is written in both Khmer and English. The researcher wants people to read each statement and tick the number that applies to them based on the rating scales such as 1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Neutral, 4=Agree, and 5=Strongly Agree.

Validity and Reliability
Section A contains teacher demographics, and Section B covers transformational leaders and Staff performance. The researcher also uses Sharma (2016)'s Cronbach's alpha () values and ranks to approve or reject questionnaire items, According to  (17 items) = 0.84 and staff performance (18 items) = 0.85. The above Cronbach's Alpha of 0.84 shows that TL is good, and SP is also good. Therefore, Cronbach's alpha from the above study indicates that all items in the questionnaire are reliable in this research.

Data Analysis
SPSS version 25 is used to analyze the findings of a collection. Correlation, often known as correlation analysis, is a word used to describe the relationship or association between Transformational leadership and Staff performance. The correlation between the two variables is represented by the letter "r" and quantified as a number between -1 and 1. Zero indicates no correlation, whereas 1 shows a complete or perfect correlation (Nalband et al., 2016;Gogtay & Thatte, 2017;Akoglu, 2018 Grade 4 14 14 Grade 5 14 14 Grade 6  17  17 Total 100 100 One hundred respondents answered the questionnaires, 20 percent men and 80 percent women. According to age group results, most respondents were 79 percent in the 24-and-up age group (79 percent), whereas the smaller 18-20 age group had just 1 percent, and the 21-23 age group had 20 percent. It can be interpreted from the above response that most teaching staff are in grade 1, equivalent to 24 percent of the total. And the next followup grade 2 respondents were 19 percent, but just 12 percent of the teachers in grades 3, 4, and 5 had the same respondents, at 14 percent. Furthermore, Grade 6 was the last grade of teaching staff. Finally, the majority of the gender is female (80%), the majority of the age group is 24-Up (79%), and the most taught grade is Grand 1 (24%). Table 3. The correlation coefficient between (TL) and staff performance (SP)

Variables
Correlation Coefficient P-value Transformational leadership 0.44 0.00 Staff performance Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

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The finding clearly demonstrated a correlation between TL and SP. The correlation analysis presented in Table 3 above (r = 0.44, with p = 0.00) indicated that TL has a low positive relationship with SP. Table 4. The correlation coefficient between the idealized influence of TL and TP of SP

Variables
Correlation Coefficient P-value Idealized influence 0.24 0.01 Task performance Note: *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).
The result clearly indicated that the correlation coefficient between the Idealized influence of TL and TP of SP was r = 0.24, P = 0.01. Table 4 of the analysis shows that the correlation is weak. The finding clearly demonstrated a correlation between the Idealized influence of TL and the CP of SP (r = 0.42, p = 0.00). The correlation analysis presented in Table 5 above indicated that it has a low positive relationship. Table 6. The correlation coefficient between the inspirational motivation of TL and TP of SP Variables Correlation Coefficient P-value Inspirational motivation 0.34 0.00 Task performance Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Table 6 proves the low positive correlation between TP and Inspirational motivation. The r = 0.34 is a low positive correlation or a sustainable relationship with a very strong significant level of p = 0.00. Contextual performance Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Table 7 clearly indicates the low positive correlation between the Inspirational motivation of TL and CP of SP. The value of r = 0.48 is a low positive correlation or a sustainable relationship with a statistically significant level of 0.01 (p < 0.01). H01.5 There is no relationship between TP and Intellectual stimulation of TL 5. Intellectual stimulation of TL and TP of SP Table 8. The correlation coefficient between intellectual stimulation of TL and TP of SP

Variables
Correlation Coefficient P-value Intellectual stimulation 0.36 0.00 Task performance Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Table 8 illustrates the low positive correlation between Intellectual stimulation of TL and TP of SP. The r = 0.36 is a low positive correlation or a sustainable relationship with a statistically significant level of 0.01 (p < 0.01). Table 9. The correlation coefficient between intellectual stimulation of TL and CP of SP

Variables
Correlation Coefficient P-value Intellectual stimulation 0.47 0.00 Contextual performance Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Table 9 clearly indicates the low positive correlation between Intellectual stimulation of TL and CP of SP. The value of r = 0.47 is a low positive correlation or a sustainable relationship with a statistically significant level of 0.01 (p < 0.01). Table 10. The correlation coefficient between individualized consideration of TL and TP of SP Variables Correlation Coefficient P-value Individualized consideration 0.30 0.00 Task performance Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

H01.7 There is no relationship between TP and Individualized consideration of TL 7. Individualized consideration of TL and TP of SP
Table 10 clearly demonstrates the low positive correlation between Individualized consideration of TL and the Task performance of Staff performance. The r = 0.30 is a low positive correlation or a sustainable relationship with a statistically significant level of 0.01 (p < 0.01).
Jurnal As-Salam Vol. 7 No. 1 Januari -Juni 2023: 26 -41 Rotana Sek | 36 Table 11 clearly shows the low positive correlation between Individualized consideration of TL and CP of SP. The r = 0.36 is a low positive correlation or a sustainable relationship with a statistically significant level of 0.01 (p < 0.01).

Transformational leadership and staff performance
This study found a statistically significant positive correlation between TL and SP (r = 0.44, with p = 0.00), indicating that TL has a low positive relationship with SP at the private primary schools in Phnom Penh. Moreover, a similar study shows that TL is also positively and significantly related to SP r = 0.379, p = 0.00 (Islam et al., 2012). Previous research indicated that SP strongly correlates with the TL style, r = 0.274, with the correlation being significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) (Paracha et al., 2012). But the result from (Shafie et al. (2013) showed that the hypothesis was rejected because of the significance level of the test (p = 0.00) and the correlation coefficient between TL and Staff performance (r = 0.78). Therefore, the null hypothesis (H01) is rejected due to the p-value (p=0.00) and r=0.44.

Idealized influence of TL and TP on staff performance
The correlation between the Idealized influence of TL and TP demonstrated SP with a positive correlation with r = 0.24, P = 0.01. The result proved that the relatedness of Idealized influence played an important role in TP. These results supported Datche and Mukulu's (2015) findings, who found that Idealized influence was positively related and significant to staff performance (r = 0.18, p = 0.00). Moreover, a similar study from Mel (2018) also illustrates that the correlation coefficient between the Idealized influence of TL and the TP of SP was r = 0.34, p = 0.00.

Idealized influence of TL and CP on staff performance
The correlation between the Idealized influence of TL and CP demonstrated a positive correlation with (r = 0.42, p = 0.00). Moreover, the study correlation between the Idealized influence of TL and SP found that it was positively and significantly related to SP because the two variables were strongly correlated (r = 0.64, p = 0.00) (Ngaithe et al., 2016). Based on PanSeha (2018), the correlation coefficient between the Idealized influence of TL and the CP of SP was r = 0.256, p = 0.013. It shows strong evidence of a significant and positive relationship between the Idealized influence of TL and the CP of SP.

Inspirational motivation of TL and TP for staff performance
The correlation between the Inspirational motivation of TL and TP was r = 0.48, p = 0.00. It also shows strong evidence of a significant and positive relationship between the Inspirational motivation of TL and TP at the private primary schools in Phnom Penh. Similarly, a previous study also showed a result with a positively correlated and statistically significant (r = 0.28; p = 0.00) (NDISYA, 2016). Furthermore, Datche and Mukulu (2015) discovered that TL's Inspirational motivation was positively and significantly related to Staff performance (r = 0.43, p = 0.00). This relationship is statistically significant as (p = 0.00) is less than the 0.01 alpha for significance in this study.

Inspirational motivation of TL and CP of staff performance
The Inspirational motivation of TL and CP of SP demonstrated a positive correlation with (r = 0.48, p = 0.00). It also shows strong evidence of a significant and positive relationship between the Inspirational motivation of TL and the CP of SP at the private primary schools in Phnom Penh. Based on Mel (2018), the correlation coefficient between the Inspirational motivation of TL and the CP of SP was r = 0.24, p = 0.01. These results supported Nyokabi et al. (2017), who found that the inspirational motivation of TL was positively related and significant to Staff performance (r = 0.75, p = 0.00).

Intellectual stimulation of transformational leadership and task performance of staff performance
The findings demonstrated that the relatedness of the correlation between Intellectual stimulation of TL and TP of SP was r = 0.29, with a P-value (p = 0.00). Based on Mel (2018), the correlation coefficient between the Intellectual stimulation of TL and TP of SP was r = 0.37, p = 0.00. Accordingly, Datche and Mukulu (2015) indicated that the Intellectual stimulation of TL was positively related and significant to SP (r = 0.39, p = 0.00). This relationship is statistically significant as (p = 0.00) is less than the 0.01 alpha for significance in this study.

Intellectual stimulation of transformational leadership and contextual performance of staff performance
The Intellectual stimulation of TL and CP of SP demonstrated a positive correlation with (r = 0.47, p = 0.00). But, Mel (2018) illustrates that the correlation coefficient between intellectual stimulation of TL and CP of SP was r = 0.18, p = 0.06. Therefore, the relationship between Intellectual stimulation of TL and CP of SP is not significant because (p = 0.06 > 0.05). Based on Nyokabi et al. (2017) found that intellectual stimulation of TL was positively related and significant to Staff performance (r = 0.38, p = 0.00).

Individualized consideration of transformational leadership and task performance of staff performance
The correlation between Individualized consideration of TL and TP of SP was (r = 0.30, p = 0.00). It also shows strong evidence of a significant and positive relationship between Individualized consideration of TL and TP of SP at the private primary schools in Phnom Penh. According to Mel (2018), the correlation coefficient between Individualized consideration of TL and TP of SP was r = 0.26, p = 0.00. Nyokabi et al. (2017) found that Jurnal As-Salam Vol. Individualized consideration of TL was positively related and significant to SP (r = 0.47, p = 0.00). This relationship is statistically significant as p = 0.00.

Individualized consideration of transformational leadership and contextual performance of staff performance
The correlation between Individualized consideration of TL and CP of SP was (r = 0.29, p = 0.00). Mel (2018) illustrates that the correlation coefficient between Individualized consideration of TL and CP of SP was r = 0.12, p = 0.20. Moreover, Datche and Mukulu (2015) found that Individualized consideration of TL was positively related and significant to SP (r = 0.37, p = 0.00). This relationship is statistically significant as (p = 0.00) is less than the 0.01 alpha for significance in this study.

CONCLUSION
The findings show that Transformational leadership positively correlates with Staff performance at private primary schools in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. All eight subhypotheses have results with a positive correlation and a statistically significant p-value. Also, the result shows a clear link between Transformational leadership and how well staff does their jobs. Based on the results, Transformational leaders are an essential part of the growth of every primary school. So, private primary schools, relevant organizations, and educational institutions should set policies to strengthen and implement Transformational leadership. Therefore, the research findings benefit both school principals and teachers with a better understanding of Transformational leadership to improve their schools in terms of Staff performance.