The Relationship between Principals’ Leadership Style and Teachers’ Job Satisfaction in Government Secondary Schools of Harar City, Ethiopia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school principals‟ leadership style and teachers‟ job satisfaction in government secondary schools of Harar city. Correlational research design was employed for the study to examine the relationship between the variables. The instruments used were two sets of questionnaire: Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), and Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) which were administered to 144 randomly selected teachers from five government general secondary schools of Harar city. The data collected was analyzed using mean, Pearson‟s correlation and regression analysis to establish the relationships between principals‟ leadership style and teachers‟ job satisfaction. The study unveiled statically significant relationships between principals‟ leadership styles and teachers‟ job satisfaction. Accordingly, principal transformational leadership explained 41.2 percent of the variance in the teacher‟s job satisfaction. Idealized behavior, and individual consideration components of transformational leadership, and contingent reward component of transactional leadership were also found to be predictors of teacher job satisfaction. It was recommended that principals need to favor transformational leadership in the leadership of their schools. Furthermore, training, seminars, and experience sharing programs should be organized for supervisors and education office professionals on transformational leadership so that they will be able to facilitate transformational leadership at schools.