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Leadership is a process influence between leaders and subordinates where a leader attempts
to influence the behavior of subordinates to achieve the organizational goals (Koontz et al,
1988). Organizational success in achieving its goals and objectives depends on the leaders of
the organization and their leadership styles. By adopting the appropriate leadership styles,
leaders can affect employee job satisfaction, commitment and productivity.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of leadership style on
teachers’ job satisfaction in public secondary schools in Musoma Municipal Council. The
study examines whether transformational and transactional leadership styles stimulate and
sustain teachers’ job satisfaction. Questionnaires were administered to 54 public secondary
school teachers from different schools. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ)
and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) were used by teachers to assess their
heads of schools in relation to the satisfaction they derive from their jobs. To analyse the
data, multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine how well transformational and
transactional leadership factors predict teachers’ job satisfaction.
Overall the results of the present study yielded some significant findings. The results showed
a positive correlation between transformational leadership dimensions on teachers’ job
satisfaction. With regard to transactional leadership dimensions, the results showed that
transactional leadership affects the outcome variable, but their influence was lower as
compared to the influence of transformational leadership factors. The individual transactional
leadership factors that had positively influenced the outcome variable were Contingent
rewards and active management by exception. The remaining two transactional leadership
factors, passive management by exception and laissez-faire had mainly negative effects on
the outcome variable. Moreover, the results showed that the influence of transformational
and transactional leadership on job satisfaction were slightly affected by taking teachers’
background characteristics into account. The results for instance revealed academic
difference with regard to levels of job satisfaction.
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Based on these results, the following implications for further research are formulated. First,
more research in the African educational context is needed in order to further confirm Bass’s
claim (1985) of the universality of transformational and transactional leadership across
different cultures. Second, apart from job satisfaction, other potential mediator variables (e.g
organizational climate, trust in leadership) should be used in future research in examining the
relationship between transformational and transactional leadership and teachers’ work related
variables. The results also have implications for the preparation and the training of school
leaders in Tanzania. In order to enhance higher levels of teachers’ work related attitudes and
behavior, it is strongly suggested that school heads in Tanzania should practice
transformational leadership behaviors and practices. It is also advocated that school heads,
both practicing and aspiring school leaders, should receive training in both effective
transformational and transactional leadership practices, this can be through seminars,
workshops and updates on school administration and leadership in order to sharpen the skills
of institutional leaders on the job and equip them with knowledge to influence the retention
rate of teachers to benefit the student, the teacher, and the school system. Lastly, the fact that
job satisfaction has shown to be an important mediator of leadership and teachers work
related attitudes and behavior suggests that the Tanzanian government ought to pay attention
to teachers’ job satisfaction, in order to enhance teachers’ commitment to the present
educational reform process. The issues related to salary and working conditions seems to be
the bones contention and need urgent attention if we are to guarantee the success of the
educational reform process in Tanzania. |
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