The Principals’ Leadership behaviors and Teachers’ Job Attitudes: Exploring the Moderating Effect of Perceived Task Abilities

Abstract

This study examined the moderating role of teachers’ perceptions about their abilities related to task demands on three-way interactions of the principals’ leadership behavior, teachers’ job expectancies and teachers’ work satisfaction. Path-goal Leadership questionnaire, Job Expectancies Scale and Job Descriptive Index were adapted to measure different variables of the study. Responses were received from 289 teachers working in 39 government colleges of districts Sargodha. For moderating analysis PROCESS macro for SPSS was used. Findings indicated that the interaction effects of teachers’ ability perception with the four leader behaviors affected their work satisfaction. Low ability teachers were satisfied with their work while working under the leadership of directive principals whereas high ability teachers were happy with participative and delegating principals. The findings confirmed path-goal predictions for work satisfaction but not for Job expectancies.