State School Principals’ Perceived Leadership Behaviors in Relation to English Language and Other Subject Area Teachers’ Job Satisfaction in TRNC

ABSTRACT: This study was intended to determine the state school teachers’ perceptions of their school principal’s leadership behavior (consideration and initiating structure) in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in relation to their job satisfaction levels. The study measured teachers’ perceptions of their school principals’ leadership behavior through the responses they gave on the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ). One the other hand, Mohrman-Cooke-Mohrman job satisfaction scale was utilized to measure teachers expressed overall job satisfaction, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels. From a population of around 1550 school teachers, 837 randomly selected teachers were sent the questionnaire packages and 599 (N = 599, 274 form elementary, 325 from secondary schools) returned them. Thus, the return rate was 72%. With a sample size of 599 teachers 57% of all the teachers in TRNC were included in the study. After the data was collected, teachers’ perceptions of their school principals’ leadership behaviors and teachers’ expressed job satisfaction levels were determined through statistical analysis. While examining the obtained data, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 18) was utilized to carry out statistical procedures. First, the perceived leadership behavior of school principals and teachers’ expressed overall job satisfaction, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels were calculated as a whole. Then, a linear regression analysis was conducted to test whether a relationship existed between school teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ leadership behavior and teachers’ expressed job satisfaction levels. Since a relationship was found, the significance of this relationship was analyzed. Analysis of data proved that there was a significantly positive relationship between school principals’ perceived consideration behavior and teachers’ expressed overall job satisfaction, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels and there was no significant relationship between school principals’ perceived initiation of structure behavior and teachers’ overall job satisfaction, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels. Further analyses were carried out to examine in detail the difference between elementary and secondary school teachers’ perceptions of their school principals’ leadership behaviors and expressed job satisfaction levels. A significant difference was observed in both areas so school principals were interviewed to double check the validity of the findings. Elementary school principals were perceived to be less considerate and less initiating structure than secondary school principals, moreover, elementary school teachers expressed lower overall job satisfaction, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation levels. School principals agreed with the findings stating the possibility that a difference could exist between elementary and secondary school teachers perceptions of their principals’ leadership behavior and expressed job satisfaction levels due to the fact that their conditions were quite different from each other. Another area which was specifically dealt with was the difference between English language and other subject area teachers’ perceptions or their school principals’ leadership behaviors and their expressed job satisfaction levels. The reason for doing so was the assumption that the English language teachers due to some peculiarities of their subject area would have different needs and expectations, thus, their job satisfaction levels would be affected if such needs and expectations were not met. No significant difference was found between the two. The reason for this could be the support the English language teachers receive from external institutions such as the British Council in Cyprus, the Cyprus Turkish English language teachers Association (CTELTA) and representatives of publishers. Key Words: English language teachers, school principals, leadership, consideration, initiating structure, motivation, job satisfaction. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………