Influence of principals’ transformative corporate leadership style on teachers’ job commitment in public secondary schools in Athi River sub county, Machakos county, Kenya

Abstract

It is widely recognized and agreed upon that one of the key factors determining school‟s effectiveness is the nature and quality of school heads. Despite the fact that public secondary schools in Athi River Sub County have qualified school principals using various management styles in their respective schools, the students‟ academic performance in these schools have persistently been below average over the last five years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of principals‟ transformative corporate leadership style on teachers‟ job commitment in public secondary schools in Athi River Sub County, Machakos County, Kenya. The study sought to determine the influence of principal‟s idealized influence, inspired motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration on teachers‟ job commitment in public secondary schools in Athi River Sub County, Machakos County, Kenya. The study used correlation research design to collect data from principals, deputy principals and teachers in public primary schools in Athi River Sub County. The total number of respondents was 13 principals, 13 deputy principals and, 260 teachers and thus the total target population was 286. The researcher used census approach to select all the schools‟ heads and their deputies and stratified random sampling to select 104 teachers. The analysis was done by descriptive statistics using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21.0. In addition, Pearson‟s correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to establish the relationship between the study variables. The study found that idealized influence and teachers‟ job commitment are positively and significant related (r=0.109, p=0.001), inspired motivation and teachers‟ job commitment are positively and significant related (r=0.139, p=0.001), intellectual stimulation and teachers‟ job commitment were positively and significantly related (r=0.279, p=0.000) while individualized considerations and teachers‟ job commitment were also positively and significantly related (r=0.251, p=0.000). The study concluded that idealized inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration are four factors that influence teachers‟ job commitment. The study therefore recommends that there is need for principals in public secondary schools to adopt transformation leadership styles so as to improve on teachers‟ job commitment.