Exploring the link between distributed leadership and job satisfaction of school leaders

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to map school leaders’ perceptions concerning the cooperation of the leadership team, the distribution of leadership functions and participative decision‐making, and to asses their relative weight in terms of predicting school leaders’ job satisfaction. Also, the effect of demographical and structural school variables (i.e. seniority, job experience, school size, size of the leadership team, school type) on school leaders’ job satisfaction was examined. A sample of 130 school leaders of 46 large secondary schools completed a self‐report questionnaire. The study results indicated that school leaders are highly satisfied with their job. Multiple regression analysis revealed that job satisfaction was significantly related to the cooperation of the leadership team and the school type. The amount of formal distribution of leadership functions and participative decision‐making of teachers in the school policy did not have a significant influence on school leaders’ job satisfaction.

Keywords:

• distributed leadership
• school leaders
• job satisfaction
• quantitative research