Secondary school head teachers’ leadership styles and teachers’ organizational commitment in Tororo municipality.

Abstract

Employees are the most important resource to any organization. To utilize their potential maximally, their commitment in accelerating the organizations’ vision, goals, and values to critical levels should be enhanced by the organizational leadership. The purpose of this study was to investigate how secondary school head teachers’ leadership styles affects teachers’ organizational commitment in Tororo Municipality. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design. The participants were 476 teachers, deputies, and head teachers selected using census, stratified, purposive, and simple random sampling techniques respectively to get the sample from schools. A sample of 250 respondents was used, out of whom 82.0% completed the questionnaires. The Multifactor Leadership, and Organizational Commitment Questionnaires were used in data collection. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics, and bivariate correlational analysis in SPSS 20. The study revealed that leadership styles comprising transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership had no significant effect on overall organizational commitment, and its dimensions. However, there were significant effects established between laissez faire leadership, and affective commitment, and between transformation leadership, and affective commitment. It was further revealed that head teachers practiced laissez faire leadership to a low extent, while transformational leadership was practiced to a moderately high extent, and transactional leadership was practiced to moderate extent. It was further shown that teachers had low level of affective commitment, moderate levels of continuance, normative, and organizational commitment. It was recommended that head teachers, school boards, and higher education officials should foster transformational, and transactional leadership which have been known to yield high commitment among teachers by implementing leadership development programs so as to provide knowledge about transformational leadership behaviors.