The influence of leadership style on teacher job satisfaction

The article examines the effects of principals' leadership style (transformational or transactional), principals' decision-making strategy (autocratic versus participative), and teachers' occupation perceptions on teacher satisfaction from the job. More specifically, it attempts to find out how much of the variation in teachers' job satisfaction can be attributed to their perceptions of their occupation, as compared to their perceptions about their principals' leadership style and decision-making strategy. A quantitative questionnaire using Likert-type scales was administered to 930 teachers in Israeli schools, of whom 745 responded. Path analysis was used to explain teacher job satisfaction by the exogenous variables. The most salient finding was that teachers' occupation perceptions strongly affected their satisfaction. Principals' transformational leadership affected teachers' satisfaction both directly and indirectly through their occupation perceptions. Implications of the study are discussed in relation to supervisors and principals, as well as to policy makers at the government level.