The mediating effect of transformational leadership on the relationship between personality traits and job satisfaction in the educational sector in Jordan

ABSTRACT

The originality and value of this study came from the other previous and published studies that measured the impact of personality traits on job satisfaction alone or the impact of transformational leadership on job satisfaction alone, or the impact of personality traits on transformational leadership, especially in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region while there are no studies take into consideration the relationship to examine the positive effect of personality traits based on the big five models (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience) on job satisfaction by clarifying the mediating effect of transformational leadership on the educational sector in Jordan, which is noticed as a gap to study. The study was conducted on Jordanian schools to develop personality concept to be reflected in schools’ activities. The population of this study consists of junior and senior teachers and administrative employees working at Jordanian schools in Jordan. Using data collected from 350 employees through a questionnaire for a 5-point likert scale over the Educational Sector in Jordan. The research cannot get a list containing names of school employees for privacy reasons which made the sample of this research a purposive one. The study utilized two statistical packages, statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and SPSS-AMOS for analyzing the data. The findings and results of the study showed that the awareness of personality traits effects on job satisfaction is not sufficient in schools in Jordan, also Extroversion personality has the most significant effect on job satisfaction and on transformational leadership, and moreover, the results also showed that transformational leadership mediates the relationship between Personality Traits and Job Satisfaction.

KEYWORDS:

• personality traits
• the big five model
• transformational leadership
• job satisfaction
• educational sector