THE RELATIONSHIP OF PRINCIPALS’ LEADERSHIP STYLE AND TEACHERS’ MOTIVATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF CENTRAL ZONE OF TIGRAI REGIONAL STATE

Abstract

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between leadership style of principals and teachers’ motivation in secondary schools of central zone of Tigray regional state. The study was carried out in five schools which were selected through proportional random sampling technique. From the total population of the teachers 184 teachers of the sampled were taken by using simple random sampling techniques. Descriptive survey design was employed to address the following research questions: which leadership behaviour is practiced by the school principals? to what extent does a principals leadership style influence teachers’ motivation? And which leadership behavior has a positive relation on teacher motivation in secondary schools in the Central Zone of Tigray region state? To address the questions two separate instruments, specifically Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS), were used to measure leadership behaviour and Teachers’ motivation. Statistical tools such as descriptive statistics, Pearson productmoment correlation coefficient, independents t-test and one-way ANOVA were used. The findings revealed that transformational leadership behaviour was highly practiced, which was followed by transactional leadership behaviour. Furthermore, laissez-faire leadership behaviour was the least practiced by the principals of the study area. The findings also suggest that principals may have flexibility in their behaviour and that no single leadership behaviour is effective in all situations. The three-leadership behaviour had positive effect on teacher’s motivation. From the three-leadership behaviour, transformational leadership behaviour highly and significantly predicted the dimensions of employee motivation. Moreover, the researcher concluded that transformational leadership behaviour has a significant, very high and positive relationship with teachers’ motivation, while transactional leadership behaviour has a positive, moderate and significant relationship with motivation. Finally, laissez-faire leadership behaviour has a positive, low and significant relationship with teachers’ motivation. Based on the findings, the following recommendations were forwarded; ministry of education and regional educational bureau should give special attention to better understood both by the principals and teachers by giving appropriate trainings based on their division of work. School principals of the sampled schools should follow both transformational and transactional leadership behaviour as the findings confirmed that the teachers’ motivation was having positive impact by transformational and transactional leadership behaviour. Principals need to attempt to maintain this transformational leadership behaviour as the schools can easily and effectively achieve its goals through motivated teachers.