Leadership Styles as tools for teacher Job Satisfaction A Case Study of Secondary Schools in Muhanga District

Abstract

District. The research was guided by three objectives: first, to investigate the level of leadership styles and the level of job satisfaction among the teachers in secondary schools in Muhanga District; second, to assess the influence of leadership styles employed by head teachers and the level of satisfaction of teachers in secondary schools of Muhanga District and third, to identify the challenges encountered by head teachers in performing their leadership. The population of this study was composed of 930 head teachers and teaching staff in secondary schools of Muhanga District. A sample of 274 teachers and 24 head teachers was used and data was collected through questionnaire and interview. The findings indicate that autocratic, democratic and situational leadership are highly used as it is shown by their respective Grand Means (2.59; 2.70; 2.70) while the laisser-faire leadership style is used fairly frequently as it is indicated by its 2.45 Grand Mean. Teachers reported a relatively high level of job satisfaction (with a Grand Mean of 2.96), however the age group expressing the highest level of dissatisfaction is the new generation of teachers aged 20-29. Democratic leadership style has been found a good leadership to promote satisfaction with r varying from .350 to .549. Situational leadership style promotes satisfaction among teachers but generally, findings indicate a weak correlations starting from 0.084 to .471. Teachers are also satisfied with the laisser-faire leadership style (.222 to .451). Head teachers are therefore recommended to use democratic leadership style which was revealed by the study to produce more satisfaction than others. Findings revealed that teachers are not satisfied with the use of autocratic leadership style (-.431 to -.214). This study also revealed a number of challenges encountered by head teachers in performing leadership. The main challenge is the lack of training about leadership for those who are appointed as school heads. The study recommends that a specialized management and leadership training course be designed for teachers aspiring to become head teachers in secondary schools.