Principals’ leadership styles and teachers’ organizational commitment in primary schools of Haramaya Woreda, Ethiopia

This study examined the relationship between principals’ leadership styles and teachers’ organizational commitment (OC) in primary schools in Haramaya Woreda, Ethiopia. A quantitative method based on descriptive and correlational study approaches was used. Data were collected from 198 randomly selected teachers using standardized questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-sample t-tests, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analyses. The findings found that principals were primarily seen as practicing laissez-faire leadership, with transformational and transactional leadership techniques being relatively limited. Teachers’ overall organizational commitment was also low, with continuation commitment slightly greater than affective and normative commitment. Correlation analysis revealed that transformational leadership was positively associated with normative commitment, whereas transactional leadership had mixed relationships across commitment domains, with a positive association with continuance commitment but a negative association with normative commitment. Transactional leadership demonstrated mixed relationships across commitment domains, with a positive association with normative commitment and a negative association with normative commitment, but its relationship with affective commitment was weak and not statistically significant. Laissez-faire leadership was usually linked to lower levels of teacher commitment, suggesting that teachers’ emotional attachment, sense of obligation, and willingness to stay in their schools may be weakened by principals’ lack of active leadership, direction, and decision-making. This result emphasizes how important it is to use proactive and involved leadership practices in order to increase teachers’ organizational commitment. The findings suggest that leadership development activities should focus on strengthen active, supporting, and transformative leadership practices while reducing passive laissez-faire leadership behaviors. Such efforts may help to create school environments that better promote teachers’ organizational commitment.