The relationship of teachers\u27 job satisfaction and their perceptions of principals\u27 leadership styles in private vocational high schools in a selected metropolitan area of Taiwan

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between teachers\u27 job satisfaction and their perceptions of principals\u27 leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles) in the Kaohsiung Metropolitan Area of Taiwan. A secondary purpose was to examine the difference between teachers\u27 gender, educational level, and length of service in terms of their perceptions of the three different leadership styles and job satisfaction. The sample consisted of 629 full-time private vocational high school teachers. The translated Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) was used to measure teachers\u27 perceptions of their principals\u27 leadership styles. The translated Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) Short Form was used to measure teachers\u27 general job satisfaction. The demographic sheet designed by the researcher was used to request subjects to provide information about gender, educational level, and length of service. Pearson product-moment correlations were computed between each leadership scale and general job satisfaction. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to predict which subset of MLQ leadership scales would most influence job satisfaction. The t test was used to compare the difference on teachers\u27 gender, educational level, and length of service with both the perceptions concerning the leadership styles of their principals and their job satisfaction. The major conclusions drawn from the study were: (a) Teachers perceived their principals\u27 leadership styles to be predominantly laissez-faire, (b) overall transformational leadership and its subscales were positively correlated with general job satisfaction, (c) female teachers perceived their principals as more transformational leaders and less laissez-faire leaders than male teachers, but there was no significant difference between male and female teachers\u27 perceptions of their principals\u27 transactional leadership style, (d) there was no significant difference between teachers with bachelor degree and less than bachelor degree nor between those who had served more and less than 10 years, in terms of their perceptions of the three different leadership styles, and (e) higher levels of job satisfaction were found among female teachers, those with bachelor degree, and those with less than 10 years of service