Principals’ Leadership Styles and their Relationship with Teachers’ Job Satisfaction in Siaya, Kisumu and Kajiado Counties in Kenya.

Abstract

While there is general agreement the world over, that the principal’s leadership style has a remarkable effect on teachers’ job satisfaction, little is known about Kenya particularly in the area of full-range leadership. The purpose of this study was to examine principals’ leadership styles and their relationship with teachers’ job satisfaction in public secondary schools in Siaya, Kisumu and Kajiado counties, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were: to find out the predominant leadership style practised by principals in public secondary schools in Siaya, Kisumu and Kajiado counties, Kenya; to determine the level of teachers’ job satisfaction in Siaya, Kisumu and Kajiado counties, Kenya and to establish the relationship between principals’ leadership styles and teachers’ job satisfaction in Siaya, Kisumu and Kajiado counties, Kenya. The study was guided by the Full Range Leadership theory and the Herzberg’s two factor theory. The study adopted correlation research design. The target population comprised of all the 397 principals, 389 deputy principals, 1,190 heads of departments and 2,208 teachers in public secondary schools in Siaya, Kisumu and Kajiado counties who had served for at least two years in the same school. Proportional stratified and simple random sampling were used to sample 39 secondary school principals, 35 deputy principals, 97 heads of departments and 181 secondary school teachers giving a total of 352 respondents. The data for this study was collected using Teacher Job Satisfaction Survey Questionnaire which assessed the intrinsic and the extrinsic factors of job satisfaction. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Form 5X was used to classify the leadership styles of principals as laissez-faire, transformational and transactional. The data was condensed and summarized before being analyzed using percentages, means, standard deviations, chi-square and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The findings of the study have shown that transformational leadership was the predominant leadership style practised by the principals. The study found out that most teachers were satisfied with their job in relation to the leadership style in place. The study established a positive and significant correlation between transformational leadership style and teachers’ job satisfaction, no significant correlation between transactional leadership style and teachers’ job satisfaction and a negative significant correlation between laissez-faire leadership style and teachers’ job satisfaction. The study concluded that the leadership style practiced by a principal has a significant effect on teachers’ job satisfaction. It was recommended that Teachers’ Service Commission should organize regular teacher professional development programs to train principals on the importance of using transformational leadership style as opposed to transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles.