Influence of headteachers’ leadership styles on teachers’ job commitment in public primary schools in Machakos subcounty, Machakos county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of headteachers’ leadership styles on teachers’ job commitment in public primary schools in Machakos sub county, Kenya. The study’s objectives sought to determine the extent to which headteachers’ use of transactional, transformational democratic and autocratic leadership styles influenced teachers’ commitment in public primary schools in Machakos Sub- County. The study was guided by equity theory. The study used descriptive survey design. The study respondents were both primary school headteachers and teachers. The target population of the study was 57 headteachers, 113 public primary schools and 650 primary school teachers. The headteachers, teachers and the schools were stratified per division after which simple random sampling was used to select them. The study used questionnaire for both headteachers and teachers. Content validity of the research instruments was ascertained by a team of experts in Educational Administration and through piloting of the test items while reliability of the questionnaires was ascertained by a test-re-test technique where a coefficient of stability of the questionnaire obtained was 0.92 using the Pearson’s product moment formula. Data was collected by use of questionnaires for both headteachers and teachers. The data was analyzed by use of SPSS programme. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse teachers’ demographic data and the responses on head teachers’ leadership styles influencing teachers’ job commitment. Responses on headteachers’ leadership styles were cross tabulated with teachers’ level of commitment to determine the varying influences of leadership styles on teacher commitment. Pearson test was used to analyze the degree of relationship between headteachers’ leadership styles and teachers’ job commitment while Chi square was used to determine the level and degree of significance between headteachers’ leadership styles and teachers’ commitment to duty. The results from the questionnaires were presented in frequency tables, bar graphs, pie charts and regression tables. The findings of the study were that head teachers practiced transactional, transformative, democratic and autocratic leadership styles at varrying levels. The study established that all the teachers showed moderate commitment in their job. There was significant relationship between headteachers’ use of transformative, democratic, transactional and autocratic leadership styles and teachers’ job commitment at significant levels between of 0.001, 0.003, 0.004 and 0.005 respectively. The study concluded that transformational leadership style highly influenced teachers’ job commitment in public primary schools in Machakos Sub County. The study recommends that headteachers need to establish a pleasant teaching and learning climate in their schools to enhance teacher commitment in their duties.