The perceived impact of school leadership style on teachers' motivation. (c2017)

Abstract

Leadership style of an administrator has a great impact on teachers’ motivation, which affects their effectiveness at work. Accordingly, this study investigates teachers' perceptions of the impact of their head of division’s leadership style on their motivation in two sister schools in Mount Lebanon area. This study tackles motivation towards different tasks: class preparation, teaching, students’ evaluation, classroom management, administrative tasks and complementary tasks. Leadership style of the HOD is grounded within the framework of Full Range Leadership theory and teachers’ motivation is based on Self-determination theory. The study follows a mixed method approach. Three instruments were used to collect data: a questionnaire filled by teachers including the “Multifactor Leadership Style” (MLQ 5x) and “Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers” (WTMST), interviews with a sample of teachers, and meeting observations. For analysis, data were examined based on side-by-side comparison of all quantitatively and qualitatively collected data. Results showed that transformational leadership coupled with contingent rewards positively affects autonomous motivation and external regulation of extrinsic motivation, while transactional leadership positively affects controlled motivation. Based on the study’s results, principals must look for candidates with transformational leadership characteristics when assigning heads of divisions as well as empower current heads of divisions to develop such leadership characteristics. Future research is needed to explore the effect of each subscale of leadership on both autonomous and controlled teacher motivation.