Influence of head teachers’ servant leadership practices on the teachers’ job satisfaction in Christian primary schools of Gasabo District

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of servant leadership style of head teachers on the teachers’ job satisfaction in Primary Christian schools of Gasabo district-Rwanda. Specific objectives of this study were; (i) To investigate head teachers’ servant leadership practices in Christian primary schools in Gasabo district, (ii) To evaluate the level of teachers’ job satisfaction in Christian Primary schools of Gasabo district and (iii) To establish the relationship between head teachers’ servant leadership practices and teachers’ job satisfaction in Christian primary schools in Gasabo district. It has been proved through research that leadership can influence teacher job satisfaction either positively or negatively. Among many leadership styles, servant leadership is well suited for Christian schools. This leadership style primarily focuses on serving and growing people. The study used Green Leaf’s (1970, 1999, 2012) 10 servant leadership principles as the independent variables and Job satisfaction indicators as the dependent variables. 41 schools were selected from Gasabo district to take part in this study and 299 teachers were the participants. Servant leadership questionnaires were given to the teachers to assess their leaders’ level of servant leadership practices, and then a job satisfaction questionnaire was also given to the teachers to do a self-assessment of their level of job satisfaction due to servant leadership practices. Results from this study supported the previous research findings that servant leadership does influence teacher job satisfaction. This may have implications that school leadership might consider to use servant leadership style in order to better serve their teachers.