Publication: Leadership styles employed by school managers to enhance teacchers' work attitudes in public primary schools in Thika East, Kiambu county, Kenya.
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2013-10
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Mount Kenya University
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Abstract
n today’s competitive world, every organization is aiming at improving productivity of its
employees through cultivating a positive attitude towards work. In pursuit of increasing
productivity towards work, researchers have largely examined factors such as remuneration,
employees work life balance, work load among other factors that are deemed to be integral
in improving employees motivation. However, few studies if any have looked at the
leadership styles employed by school managers to enhance teachers’ work attitude and
therefore the reason for this study. The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership
styles employed by school managers to enhance teachers’ work attitude. The study had four
objectives which examined the various leadership styles such as; authoritative, participative,
delegative, and combined leadership styles that enhanced teachers’ work attitude. The study
was guided by motivation maintenance theory which states that employee needs are twofold:
Motivational needs and maintenance needs. The study was conducted in Thika East District,
Kiambu County Kenya. The research adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study
targeted 37 primary school head teachers, 37 deputy head teachers, and 447 teachers in the
37 Primary Schools in Thika East District yielding a total population of 521. The researcher
used mixed sampling methods including systematic and purposive random sampling to select
7 schools and 98 respondents respectively. From each school, a head teacher, a deputy head
teacher, and teachers were sampled yielding a total sample size of 98. The study used a
combination of research instruments including questionnaire for the teachers and interview
guide for head teachers and deputy head teachers. The validity of the research instruments
was tested through content analysis by an expert while reliability was done through test retest
method. Data was analyzed through quantitative and qualitative techniques. Quantitative
analysis employed generation of descriptive statistics about the responses provided.
Qualitative analysis mainly used content from the literature as well as interview guide to
discuss common addressing the research questions under examination. This involved
generation of numeric measures of the responses provided. Use of Statistical Package for
Social Sciences helped generate descriptive statistics required for the data. The study
findings were presented in tables and charts and interpretation made based on research
objectives. The study findings indicated that most of the teachers had a positive attitude
towards their work .The respondents attributed their liking of their work to motivation,
autonomy, healthy relationships, good working conditions, good performance and personal
fulfilment. This attributes are linked to the leadership style employed by the school managers
.Participative leadership style enhanced teachers work attitude through, motivating teachers,
encouraging punctuality and self-drive, teamwork mobilization, promotion of learners’
attitude towards education and through enhancement of culture of positive attitude.The
Government should encourage the school managers to employ participative leadership style
in managing workers. This will inculcate team work spirit in running of the schools thus
improved performance and positive work attitude Moreover, the use of a combination of all
leadership styles is critical in enhancing teachers’ works attitude and performance. The
ministry of education should further monitor schools consistently to establish leadership style
used to enhance teachers work attitude. The researcher further recommended a research tobe done to establish how the styles of leadership by school managers influence the level of
performance among teachers; how various leadership styles adopted by school head teachers
has influenced the teaching learning situations in primary schools and a similar study to
establish whether similar findings will be reached in a bid to fill the gaps that were not filled
by this stud
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Education planning, management and administration