An Examination of the Relationship between the Perceived Leadership Style of the Principal and Late Career Teacher Job Satisfaction in Selected Elementary Schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the perceived leadership style of the principal and late career teacher job satisfaction. In addition, the impact of demographic variables including age, race, and gender were explored. The participants consisted of 70 late career K-6 teachers in 17 elementary schools across three school districts in Southern Arizona. The participants completed two survey instruments. Interview data was also collected.Pearson product-moment correlation tests were used to analyze the relationship between nine leadership variables describing transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership, and intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction variables. Correlation tests were also used to examine the relationship between leadership variables and demographic variables. Multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the intercorrelations between leadership and demographic variables and extrinsic and intrinsic satisfaction.The examination of the relationship between leadership variables and intrinsic and extrinsic variables produced several significant findings. The relationship between leadership variables and demographic variables also produced several significant findings. The multiple regression analyses identified a significant relationship between the perception of Idealized Influence and extrinsic satisfaction. A significant relationship was also found between Contingent Reward and intrinsic satisfaction. Qualitative data from individual teacher interviews supported these findings.The overall findings from this study suggest that late career teachers' perceptions of their principals' leadership styles impact intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. More specifically, some transformational and transactional variables had a positive impact on job satisfaction. These findings suggest that a balance of transactional and transformational leadership styles may be most effective for school leaders wishing to improve the satisfaction of late career teachers. A model was developed to describe the findings of the study. The Leadership-Satisfaction model provides an additional perspective on the relationship between perceived leadership and satisfaction by illustrating that perceived leadership impacts extrinsic and intrinsic factors which affect the overall picture of satisfaction