The relationship between principals‟ leadership styles and teachers‟ motivation in secondary schools of west showa zone

Abstract

School principals’ leadership styles play a major role in teachers’ motivation. Hence, this study investigated the relationship between principals’ leadership styles and teachers’ motivation of secondary schools in West Showa Zone. Descriptive survey research design was employed to conduct the research using both quantitative and qualitative methods through questionnaires, interviews and document analysis data gathering tools. In this study, simple random sampling, purposive and available sampling techniques were used to select a total of 355 respondents. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and Pearson Correlation Matrix. The findings of the study revealed the three leadership styles were moderately used in the schools. Besides the finding of the study revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between principals’ democratic leadership style and teachers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Moreover, the study revealed that teachers’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation was negatively related to autocratic and laissez-faire leadership styles employed by school principals. Thus, in order to adequately enhance teachers’ motivation to the required level school leaders should dominantly use the democratic style over laissez-faire and authoritative leadership styles. Additionally, secondary schools leaders, as good governance, should revise and implement their rewarding strategies to improve their teachers’ motivation.