Leadership styles and motivation of teachers in selected government-aided secondary schools in Wakiso District, Uganda

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the relationship between leadership styles and motivation of teachers in selected Government aided secondary schools in Wakiso district. It was guided by three objectives, namely; to find out the relationship between autocratic, democratic and Laissez-faire leadership styles on teachers motivation in selected Government aided secondary schools in Wakiso district. It was guided by a cross- sectional survey design which was basically quantitative, with some qualitative approaches targeting a number of 538 and sampled 195 respondents who were purposively selected and tested using Pearson’s correlation co-efficient index. The findings of the study showed an insignificant relationship between autocratic leadership style and teachers motivation. It however gave a positive significant relationship between democratic leadership style and teacher motivation in selected Government Secondary schools. It also discovered a positive relationship between Laissez-faire leadership style and teachers motivation. Conclusions were; that autocratic leadership style negatively relates with teachers motivation. Conclusions were that democratic and Laissez-faire leadership styles positively relate with teacher motivation in Government aided secondary schools. The researcher therefore concluded that for teacher motivation to be increased in government aided secondary schools, government through Ministry of Education, Education officers at district level and secondary school level should not apply autocratic leadership styles in their administration of secondary school teachers. Recommendations were that they should democratically involve teachers in decision making, through consultative meetings. In addition, teachers who know what to do should be allowed to express and do what is right since they are intellectuals.