The Impact of Principals’ Leadership Style(s) On Secondary School Teacher’s Job Satisfaction in Qardho District, Somalia

Despite the general agreement that principals' leadership styles significantly impact teachers' job satisfaction globally, very little is known about Somalia, especially when it comes to full-range leadership. This study aimed to investigate the impact of principals' leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire) on the job satisfaction of secondary school teachers in Qardho District, Somalia. The study used a descriptive research design and quantitative approach to assess how principals' styles of leadership impact job satisfaction among secondary school teachers in the district. During the first five months of the academic year 2024-2025, a structured, self-administered survey based on a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire was distributed to 109 teachers from secondary schools in the district, from which 95 completed questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 87.1%. The survey consisted of three parts: demographic questions, leadership styles (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire), and teacher job satisfaction. A modified version of Avolio and Bass's (1995) Multi-Factor Leadership Questionnaire, which measures leadership styles, was used to assess the leadership styles; and Spector's (1997) Job Satisfaction Survey was used as the instrument for measuring job satisfaction, using a five-point Likert scale. Expert reviews, as well as feedback from academic professionals at Punjabi University, ensured the content and the construct validity of the instruments. This not only allowed for the collection of new primary data on teachers' perceptions but also offered a holistic understanding of the correlations between leadership styles and job satisfaction in secondary school education in the Qardho district. The study used quantitative data, analyzed through SPSS software, applying multiple linear regression and Spearman’s correlation to investigate relationships between leadership styles and job satisfaction. Results indicated that transformational leadership had a strong positive correlation with job satisfaction and transactional leadership had a moderate positive correlation with job satisfaction. In comparison, laissez-faire leadership was negatively correlated with job satisfaction, suggesting that passive leadership styles play a substantial role in undermining teacher morale. Multiple regression analysis established that the most significant predictor of teacher job satisfaction was transformational leadership (β = 0.329), followed by transactional leadership (β = 0.180), and laissez-faire leadership had a negative effect (β = −0.517). These findings underscore the role of engaged and supportive leadership in developing a motivated and satisfied teaching workforce and recommend that principals should employ transformational leadership behaviours to raise teacher satisfaction and overall school effectiveness.