Democratic and laissez-faire administrative styles as predictors of teacher job satisfaction in public secondary schools of Naserabad Division, Balochistan

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between two major administrative styles; democratic and laissez-faire, to job satisfaction among teachers in the Naserabad Division of Balochistan, public secondary schools. The sample size (180 teachers in 3 districts of the division) was stratified by selecting 104 secondary school teachers (male and female) using random sampling. The teachers had to fill a questionnaire on the administrative style of their principals and on how satisfied they are with their jobs on a five-point scale. The outcomes revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between democratic style and job satisfaction (r =. 61, p <. 001) and a less strong but still significant positive relationship between laissez-faire style (r =. 18, p <. 05). The two styles jointly accounted 39 percent of the difference in job satisfaction, F (2, 177) = 56.34, p <.001 with democratic style taking the bulk of the difference (39.57). There was no significant difference in reported job satisfaction between male and female teachers when t (178) = -1.64, p =.103. These results impact that, when teachers are brought into decision-making and communication barriers maintained by the principals, teachers have a significantly higher level of reported satisfaction with their work as compared to when principals merely withdraw themselves and leave the teachers to their own devices. The consequences to principal training in low-resource school systems are described.