Onyango George AdinoGrace BunyiZachariah, Rabago2023-02-032023-02-032022http://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/24650A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education (Education Management) in School of Education, Kenyatta University.very school leadership is expected to offer a conducive atmosphere for work, provide supervision, coordination, and planning, engage teachers in all elements of the school, provide instructions, and provide possibilities for advancement. Because of the pivotal part they play, the leadership styles of principals have become one of the most significant factors to take into consideration in order to accomplish all of these goals. The principals of schools should come up with innovative plans that will inspire their staff members to do their work in the most efficient way possible and also persuade their followers. This might be the solution to the question of how to motivate teachers in public secondary school systems and how to improve their work performance. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the link between the leadership styles of principals and the levels of motivation that their teachers had in the counties of Nyamira and Siaya. The objectives of this research were to investigate the relationship between directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented leadership styles of principals and teacher motivation in public secondary schools located in the counties of Nyamira and Siaya in the country of Kenya. The correlation study design ended up being chosen. 371 principals, 3,166 teachers, and 2 TSC county directors were selected to participate in the research as the target group. The classification of schools into sub-county strata was accomplished by the use of stratified sampling. The sample size for each stratum was 10.21% of the total number of respondents. Both the schools and the respondents who took part in the research were chosen using a method known as simple random sampling. The Path Goal theory, which acknowledges that the activities of a leader (principal) have direct influence on the conduct of their subordinates (teachers), was used in the research . The Leadership Questionnaire for Principals, the Motivation Questionnaire for Teachers, and the interview Schedules for TSC County Directors were used in order to obtain the necessary data. The piloting of the instruments was carried out in six different public secondary schools that were chosen at random. The Cronbach's Alpha formula was used in order to determine whether or not the instrument posed a risk. The questionnaires filled out by administrators and teachers had an average of α =.70, which was over the minimum required for satisfactory consistency. The researcher did a thorough analysis of the instrument to establish its validity. The legitimacy of the content was established by soliciting the advice and opinions of subject matter experts in Educational Management. SPSS was used to do an analysis on the data that was obtained. Thematic analysis was used for qualitative data, while descriptive and inferential statistics were used for quantitative data in the analysis process. The results of the analysis were presented in the form of tables, together with the frequencies and percentages. According to the findings, there is a positive correlation established between all of the factors. The coefficients allow us to draw the conclusion that supportive leadership styles are the most effective at boosting excellent motivation, and that these styles are also the most widespread in the counties of Nyamira and Siaya. According to the findings of the research, supportive leadership styles had the most positive correlation, with 71.8% of respondents indicating that they found it to be the most impactful, while participative leadership recorded the lowest percentage, despite the fact that it was significant. It was determined as a result of these findings that the majority of teachers working in public secondary schools had a preference for leadership styles that are a combination of supportive and achievement-oriented. Because of this, the research suggests that principals should adopt the necessary leadership style in their schools in order to boost the motivation of their teachers. The Teachers' Service Commission (TSC) and the Ministry of Education (MOE) should collaborate to develop training programs for principals that focus on successful leadership styles that might potentially lead to increased levels of teacher motivation. The report makes a number of recommendations for policy changes and action plans that are related to the motivation of teachers.enRelationshipPrincipals’ Leadership StylesTeacher MotivationPublic Secondary SchoolsNyamiraSiaya Counties, KenyaThesis