The Relationship Between Teacher Perceptions of Principal Servant Leadership Behavior and Teacher Job Satisfaction in South Dakota

Data from recent national studies indicate teacher job satisfaction is decreasing. Currently, accountability-propelled media coverage is overwhelmingly critical of the educational system, in which teachers feel less appreciated, less motivated, and less satisfied. Principals can positively influence teachers’ job satisfaction when they promote growth and autonomy through increased empowerment in educational settings. As principals work with teachers in their schools, they must understand how their own leadership style impacts their teachers’ job satisfaction. This study examined the extent to which teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ servant leadership behaviors correlate with teacher job satisfaction. The population included all high school teachers in the state’s 144 public and 18 private high schools. The final sample size consisted of 76 teachers. The study utilized two separate survey instruments to collect perceptions of principal servant leadership characteristics and of job satisfaction data. Servant leadership characteristics included accountability, authenticity, courage, empowerment, forgiveness, humility, standing back, and stewardship. Questions investigating teacher job satisfaction were broken into two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to analyze the relationship between principal servant leadership behaviors and job satisfaction of teachers. Data from the surveys were evaluated for statistical significance at the .01 level. Results indicated a statistically significant relationship between South Dakota principals’ perceived overall servant leadership behavior and overall teacher job satisfaction. Data also show statistically significant relationships between each of the eight servant leadership characteristics and overall teacher job satisfaction. Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) items that focused on extrinsic job satisfaction indicated statistically significant relationships with overall servant leadership and each of the eight servant leadership characteristics. MSQ items that focused on intrinsic job satisfaction also indicated statistically significant relationships with overall servant leadership. However, only seven of the eight dimensions of servant leadership indicated statistically significant relationships with MSQ items that focused on intrinsic job satisfaction. Finally, none of the demographic factors of teacher gender, years in education, years working with same principal, highest degree held, or school size suggested statistically significant relationships with teacher job satisfaction