ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of principals’ leadership styles on teachers’ job satisfaction in public secondary schools in Ilorin metropolis. This study adopted a descriptive survey design where the target population for this study was all the 427 teachers and principals in all the 28 public secondary schools in Ilorin metropolis. The study purposely sampled 11 principals using simple random sampling and 128 teachers using stratified random sampling from mixed day schools, girls’ boarding schools and boys’ boarding schools. To collect data, a set of structured questionnaires were used as an interview guide. Before the actual data collection, piloting of questionnaires was done in two secondary schools in Ilorin metropolis. To establish the reliability of the instrument, the researcher used the test-retest where the second test administration was done one week after the first one. The study therefore concluded that the principals exercised a high level of democratic leadership. The principals rarely practice laissez faire leadership style as they are concerned about group performance. The principals practice transformational leadership by giving encouragement to members of staff to initiate new and creative ideas to benefit school and the rest of staff members. On job satisfaction the working conditions are relatively good. However the teachers were not happy with salary and benefits. The teachers were also not happy with issues to deal with training, in-service courses and recommendation for study leave by principals. On administration and supervision issues of concern to teachers included job appraisal practices employed by principals. The study recommends improvement of working conditions and provision of transport to teachers by the school vehicles. The principals should encourage and offer equal opportunities for training, seminars/ in-service courses and give recommendations for teachers to attend. The principals should actively improve on communication, by giving feedback on inquires and on a timely basis and improve on job appraisal practices to be competitive and fair. The researcher suggests the following areas for further study, given the scope and limitations of this study, the study should be carried again in some other sub counties for comparative purposes. The study also recommends that aspects of promotion prospects such as advancement opportunities, opportunity for inservice training and opportunity for growth should be enhanced. The study recommends that there is need for school administration to come up with modalities of improving job satifaction so that teachers job satifaction can be enhanced. Principals should enhance their supervisory support to enhance teachers job satisfaction.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The development of Western Education in Nigeria cannot be treated in isolation from traditional forms of education. In Kwara State, for instance, traditional education was a way of life before the advent of Western Education introduced by the Missionaries and Colonial Administration. Therefore, this formal education as embraced by the state requires more effectiveness in the leadership handling of the school heads to enable it serve as bedrock for further socio-economic development.
Different scholars have argued that there is no precise definition for describing the complex phenomenon of leadership. According Ciulla (2004), leadership is the inspiration on mobilization of others to undertake collective action in pursuit of common good. Therefore school leadership is a process of encouraging and helping teachers and learners to work enthusiastically towards realization of schools and educational objectives (Ciulla,2004).
Spector (1997) defines job satisfaction as an extent to which people like or dislike their jobs. According to Miskel (2008), job satisfaction is that emotional state resulting from appraisal of one’s job or experience. Significant indicators of job satisfaction which emerged from a study done by Mwamwenda (1995) in Transei included positive relationship between teachers and principals, results and achievements and the fact that teaching is culturally considered to be fine and challenging profession. Olando (2008) contends that low levels of job motivation and job satisfaction leads to strikes, slowdowns, absenteeism and employee turn-over. North house (2010) believed that “a teacher’s job satisfaction may serve to influence their morale, motivation and general willingness to maximize their teaching potential”. Teachers who are not satisfied with their jobs may result in bad teaching or learning process and school effectiveness will consequently be negatively impacted.
Leadership styles exhibited by a school principal affect school climate, learning situations and levels of professional and job satisfaction among teachers (Ingolo, 1991). According to Clerk (2000) leadership style is the manner and approach in which a leader provides direction, implements plans and motivates people so as to meet organizational goals. According to Okumbe (1998) leadership styles to be considered in this study are democratic, autocratic, laissez faire and transformational leadership.
Numerous researchers on school effectiveness have demonstrated some form of association between effective schools and the type of leadership practiced by their principals. Hallinger and Liethwood (1994), Liu (2004) carried out research on determinants of job satisfaction and found that loyalty to one’s employer and job longevity are important as compared to compensation, benefits and supervision for Mexican-American and vice versa for the nonHispanic. A study to identify effective leadership styles in education sector of Pakistan by Modley and Larochelle (1995), manifested that transformational leadership was more successful in Pakistan in enhancing job satisfaction.
A study by Morris and Feldman (2003) in Palestine industrial sector showed that autocratic leadership style was more frequently used than transformational leadership while laissez faire was considered as the least commonly occurring leadership style. The latter is more frequent among leaders with low educational background. Moreover, transformational leadership was found to encourage satisfaction, willingness to apply extra effort and effectiveness among employees. A study on the organizational culture, leadership modes, and employee job satisfaction at electric cable companies in Taiwan, Chen (2008) found that transformational leadership modes tend to be more acceptable to employees and affect employee job satisfaction level and innovativeness.
