Published Article / This study reports the findings of the masters studies on management styles that are adopted in effective secondary schools and examined how the effect of participative management styles could positively change the status of ineffective secondary schools. Two hundred educators and five school principals were sampled for the study. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data for the study. The respondents argued that their school principals adopted democratic, transformational, situational, and behavioural styles of management. They further believed that the adoption of participative management styles would positively change the status of ineffective secondary schools. They argued that by adopting democratic, transformational, situational and behavioural styles of management will encourage educators to: i) develop effective teaching and learning in their classrooms as they will be highly motivated; ii) adopt participative teaching methods that encourage learners to take part in classroom activities with confidence; and, iii) adopt team teaching which contributes to better performance in the classroom.