Influence of Secondary School Principals' Leadership Styles on Teachers' Job Satisfaction: A Study of Embu county-Kenya.

Abstract

This paper sets out to explore the link between the style of leadership adopted by principals in secondary schools in Embu County and job satisfaction of their teachers. The study seeks to establish whether principals' leadership styles stimulate teacher job satisfaction. The study was guided by the Transformational leadership Theory, to test whether teachers under a principal who exhibits the transformational leadership styles of initiative, consideration and participative management had higher levels of job satisfaction than those working under principals who did not. The dependent variable for the study was teachers' job satisfaction while the independent variable was principals' leadership style. The intervening variables include locus of control, perceived task ability, experience, need for achievement, need for clarity, employee task and the authority system. The study used descriptive survey design targeting 142 principals and 2130 teachers from public schools in Embu County. Stratified random sampling was used to select 20 principals and 100 teachers who participated in the study. Data was collected using two questionnaires, one for the principals and the other for the teachers. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data obtained. The analysed data was presented in summary form using frequency distribution tables and bar graphs. Data was analysed focusing on the objectives of the study. Using random sampling, 120 questionnaires were distributed to public secondary school teachers in Embu County and a total of97 responses were collected. Descriptive analysis was performed on the three types of variables. Inferential analysis was also performed in order to answer the research objectives. Theresults show that different leadership style factors will have different impacts on employee job satisfaction components. The researcher found that the dominant leadership style was democratic. Individualized consideration and the need for promotion to higher job groups increase teachers' job satisfaction.