Transformational leadership practices and its influence on teachers job satisfaction in Addis Ababa government secondary schools

Abstract

This study aims to explore the practices of transformational leadership and its influence on teachers’ job satisfaction in Addis Ababa government secondary schools. Narrative research design was employed to achieve the objective of the study. Thirty-nine school principals were selected using a purposive sampling technique. Thematic analysis was used to investigate the qualitative data that was gathered through principal’s interview.The finding of this study reveals that school principals are practicing transformational leadership by consoling their staff members to consider new thoughts, to use a variety of technologies, and to involve in training to fill any knowlege gap. Principals also strive to take into account the needs of each teacher and function as role models in all of their activities. However, it is not operated to its fullest potential in schools due to challenges related to teachers engagement in routine activities than creating new methods and ideas, multiple responsibilities of school principals, COVID-19-related activities, and poor school environment. Teachers’ job satisfaction is also low due to low level of transformational leadership. Hence, enhancing the exercise of transformational leadership through improving the school environment and delegating principals authority to the department heads, teachers,and student representatives is required to escalate the teachers’ job satisfaction.

Keywords:

• job satisfaction
• leadership
• transformational leadership

1. Introduction

Ethiopian education served as a tool for the nation’s development through generating a trained labor force (Joshi & Verpoor, 2013; Seyoum, 2005). To realize it, many reforms have been made up to the present. The reform touches every level of the educational hierarchy, including the eight years of primary school (1–4 basic primary education and 5–8 general primary education) and four years of secondary (9–10 lower secondary education and 11–12 upper secondary education) Ministry of Education (2015). One of the reforms is leadership in schools, which is crucial for achieving education goals. For instance, the 1994 education and training policy gave a lot of attention to enhancing educational leadership by involving all stakeholders in the decision-making process (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, 1994). In Ethiopia’s education development road map, schools were suggested to increase their potential for transformational school leadership (Teferra et al., 2018).

Furthermore, school leadership is a system that affects and directs teachers, other staffs, and students towards a shared educational objective (Chirchir et al., 2014). The transformational leadership approach fosters group effort in schools (Hallinger, 2003). The transformational leaders engage stakeholders to realize the educational institution’s goal in accordance with the decision made (Bush, 2007). Hence, transformational leaders are the most effective at involving all parties in the achievement of organizational goals by coordinating team expectations with those of individual employees and building a lasting relationship with their followers.

As a result, research confirms that transformational leadership helps teachers to be more satisfied in their jobs (Bass, 1990; Bass & Reggio, 2006). Nyenyembe et al. (2016) argued that teachers were satisfied with leaders who specifically cognizant individual well-being by applying individual consideration and intellectual stimulation. Long et al. (2014) added that a leader should exercise transformative leadership in order to have satisfied and productive employees.

The Ethiopian civil service reform plans correspondingly incorporate the transformational leadership approach to achieve the growth and transformational plan for various sectors (Duressa & Asfaw, 2014). In the GTP I plan as well direction were set to significantly improve the education process using transformational leadership approach (Ministry of finance and economic development, 2010).

However, studies carried out in Ethiopian context, for instance, a study on transformational leadership and its implementation in public service organizations show inadequate implementation of elements of transformational leadership (Duressa & Asfaw, 2014). Other study conducted in Wolaita Zone confirmed the presence of moderate transformational leadership in schools (Lerra, 2021). As stated in the Ethiopian Education development road map, the capacity for transformational school leadership in Ethiopian schools is low (Teferra et al., 2018). Beyene (2016) argued that consensus building and behavioral modeling achieved moderately, while individualized support is low in SNNPR’s secondary schools.

In addition, due to poor leadership in the educational system, such as less respect and support, secondary school teachers have a low level of job satisfaction (Eneyew, 2018; Mengistu in Tadele, 2014). Mohammed and Handiso (2018) and Seid and Serawit (2018) claimed that the school leaders’ capacity to motivate teachers at their jobs was affected by waiting higher official for many of their actions. Similarly, Aweke et al. (2017) asserted that school principals engagement in several activities other than leading teachers’ as one of the dreadful reasons to teachers’ job satisfaction in schools.

Despite these literatures, few studies examined the practice of transformational leadership in Addis Ababa government secondary schools. Therefore, the current study aims to identify the practice of transformational leadership and its influence on teachers’ job satisfaction. Accordingly, this study will attempt to answer the following basic questions.

1. How school leaders are motivating, stimulating and influencing teachers?

2. What are the challenges to transformational leadership practice in schools?

3. How leaders’ transformational leadership practice influence teachers’ job satisfaction in schools?

2. Review Literature

2.1. Concepts of transformational leadership

James V. Downtown introduced transformational leadership concept in 1973 (Niphadkar & Kuhil, 2017). James MacGregor Burns extended the idea of transformational leadership in 1978 (Burns, 1978). Bernard Bass has further advanced this notion, which originated when leaders encouraged and empowered staff to adopt organization goals as their own personal goals and devote all of their resources to achieving those goals (Bass, 1990). Workers are inspired to perform better than previous when transformational leadership is there (Bass & Reggio, 2006). Transformational leaders act as a role model and attempts to concretize a clear vision for the organization’s future (Bush, 2007; Jensen et al., 2019).

Others view that transformational leadership seeks to enhance the effectiveness of the organizational structure and the performance of individuals or groups of employees (Bass & Avolio, 2004). This approach of leadership entails changing leading individuals or groups to perform to greater standards (Harris & Hartma, 2002). Such leaders begin by assessing the environment to see how daily change is occurring. After that, he tries to raise the quality to greater standards. Therefore, this leadership is particularly beneficial in motivating staff to perform duties at a higher level by coordinating organizational and personal goals.

Transformational leadership as indicated below in figure 1, has four major components such as idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, individual consideration and inspirational motivation (Avolio et al., 1999; Bass & Reggio, 2006). As stated by Avolio et al. (1999) idealized influence “encompasses influence over ideology, influence over ideas and influence over issue.’’ While inspirational motivation describes the provision of clear direction and motivation of employees to work hard. The intellectual stimulation dimension focuses on motivating employees to bring their ideas and try to find out ways of solving the problem (Bass & Reggio, 2006). Individualized consideration emphasizes on listening of individual employees needs and work together on his\her development up to full potential (Bass & Reggio, 2006).

Figure 1. Transformational leadership model.

However, transformational leadership practice is affected by several factors. According to Mohammed and Handiso (2018), one of the problems with school leadership in schools is the difficulty in creating a vision to bring about change. Duressa and Asfaw (2014) found out leaders in educational organizations are not at the level necessary for transforming their organizations since there is a lack of clearly defined goals and effective communication. Tsehaye and Fekadu (2021) also confirmed that principals do not practice transformational leadership at high level since they are not role model and charismatic to the school community. Turiye (2018) argued that teachers are not clear about the significance of transformational leadership in schools. The study also found that school principals’ day-to-day administrative tasks and low parental involvement were factors influencing the effectiveness of transformational leadership in schools.

2.2. Job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is associated with employees’ better attitudes towards their work as a result of appraisal and evaluation of their performance (Luthans, 2011; Robbins, 2003; Robbins & Judge, 2013). It denotes to how someone feels about their job and all of its various aspects (Robbins, 2009; Spector, 1997). It is the extent to which basic requirements of employees, such as safety, relationships with coworkers, security, food, and trust, are addressed while they are working (Munir & Khatoon, 2015). Job satisfaction is essentially a journey for the employees when performing duties that are not final (Basu, 2016).

Job satisfaction can be also explained as a general attitude towards the job of an employee that includes interaction with employees, pay, work environment, supervision, type of job and fringe benefits (Badmapriya & Bharathi, 2018; Kaliski, 2007). Hence, it is interrelated with working environment (working conditions, tasks, benefits, pay, job security), general characteristics of employees (interests, attitudes, values, skills, needs, values and others) and the results obtained by the interplay of both workers characteristic and working environment like tension, friendship, competitive, co-operative, loose and rigid (Rajeswari & Adhimoolam, 2015).

Therefore, job satisfaction is a positive attitude or the measure of how happy or fulfilled that employees have towards their work, and it is an indispensable component for getting people to commit, put effort into finishing their tasks, and receive rewards for their successes.

Accordingly, teachers’ job satisfaction is a crucial component in the education sector for greater school goal achievement. Werang et al. (2017) contend that teachers’ job satisfaction is ultimately influenced by how contented they feel while teaching. However, factors like working environment, employee relationship with their coworkers, and advancement can have a favorable or negative impact on teachers’ job satisfaction (Ololube, 2005). Nyamubi (2017) argued that Tanzania’s secondary school teachers have a low level of satisfaction due to low compensation, remuneration, and allowances. Ansah–Hughes (2016) and Naseem and Salman (2015) found out that teachers are less satisfied with their profession due to low professional status and unfavorable working conditions, including low salary, a lack of motivation, an inadequate supply of teaching materials, and the inability to provide adequate benefits.

Correspondingly, research in Ethiopia indicates that teachers are dissatisfied with their work. (For instance, Mengistu, 2012) claimed that teachers have lower job satisfaction because of fewer benefits and poor school leadership in schools. Similarly, ESDP V MoE (2015) shows that the Ethiopian teachers are less satisfied and leave their profession because of poor school principals’ leadership.

Generally, job satisfaction is important for teachers implies that satisfied teachers’ devote their energies to helping students and achieving school objectives as a whole in an effective and efficient manner, but in our context, more attention is needed as many study findings indicate that it is low in schools.

2.3. Influence of school leaders’ transformational leadership on teachers’ job satisfaction

Job satisfaction is closely tied to transformational leadership (Robbins & Judge, 2013). Josanov- Josanov-Vrgovic and Pavlovic (2014) noted that people-focused principals of the school have a favorable influence on teachers’ satisfaction with their ability to work in teams and develop close bonds with their coworkers. A school principal’s transformative leadership activity helps in raising teachers’ job satisfaction (Hui et al., 2013; Nyenyembe et al., 2016; Tesfaw, 2014b). Bogler (2001) found out that leadership behavior of school principals, such as trying to support teacher development, recognizing teacher effort and advancing their careers can enhance teachers’ job satisfaction.

Therefore, the approach in which school leaders provide guidance and inspiration has a higher influence on teachers’ job satisfaction, particularly the transformational leadership dimension, is greatly connected to teachers’ job satisfaction.

3. Research design

This study was carried out using a narrative research approach, as it allows the researcher to collect the existing qualitative data on the practice of transformational leadership and its influence on teachers’ job satisfaction in Addis Ababa government secondary schools (Creswell, 2012; Walliman, 2011). Wolgemuth and Agosto (2019) further stated that the narrative research approach focuses on investigating the lived experience of people in formal settings like schools and other institutions. Thus, narrative research design is useful to get lived experience from sample school principals about their transformational leadership and how it affects teachers’ job satisfaction.

3.1. Sampling techniques

The study was conducted in Addis Ababa City Administration. Five of the eleven sub cities were randomly selected for this study. There is government secondary school in each sub-city, and the number of schools varies slightly throughout the sub-cities. Moreover, 14 (47%) government secondary schools were drawn from a pool of 29 using the stratified random sampling technique for this study (three from each of the four sub-cities and two from the remaining one depending on the proportion of secondary schools that were available in each sub-city) (City Government of Addis Ababa Education Bureau, 2017-2018). The schools were used as the stratum.

Furthermore, 39 principals with more than 3 years of work experience were selected from the 54 principals, since the number of principals in each of the sample schools was four, except for one school where there were two principals as study participants using a purposive sampling strategy in the belief that they have a greater understanding of transformational leadership and teachers’ job satisfaction in schools.

3.2. Data gathering instrument

Data was collected using interview. Semi-structured interview questions were developed and held with principals of the sample schools to collect qualitative data. The collected data was organized in interpretable form and thematically analyzed. Forty-five minutes face-to-face interview was conducted with 39 school principals. During the interview, micro SD voice recorder, were used to capture the audio data and take notes at the same time.

3.3. Ethical issues

Researchers obtained a formal letter of cooperation from Addis Ababa University, college of education and behavioral studies and provide to sample schools for data collection permission. Moreover, informed consent is one of the essential steps in conducting researches and full information was provided to the study participants before they take part in the interview (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007). Besides, names mentioned in the analysis section indicate pseudonym of the study participants.

3.4. Data analysis methods

General background of the respondents was examined using percentages. Regarding the qualitative data, audio recordings were first transcribed from Amharic to English using field notes. In line with Creswell (2012), we have read the transcriptions several times to fully understand the data. On the basis of their similarities, the data were then categorized into themes, and interpretation was done accordingly.

4. Results

4.1. Respondents background

As the study participants pointed out on the interview, the majority of school leaders 38(97%) were males, whereas 1 (3%) was female. It is therefore, small number of females’ engaged in Addis Ababa government high-school leadership.

Concerning the educational qualifications of the respondents, most of the respondents, 26(67%) school leaders were BA/BSc holders while, 13(33%) school leaders were MA/MSc graduates. Regarding respondents field of study, 10 (25%) of school leaders were school leadership graduates, whereas 13(33%) of school leaders were social science graduates while, 13(33%) of school leaders were natural science graduates. In addition, 3(9%) of school leaders were language graduates. Hence, few school leaders have the educational leadership training.

With regard to work experience, 5(12%) school principals had 1–10 years of work experience, while 24(63%) school leaders had 11–15 years of work experience. The remaining 10(25%) school leaders were served more than 15 years. From this data, we can infer that the highest proportions of the sample school leaders were well experienced which may be significant for effective implementation of transformational leadership in schools.

4.2. Results on principals transformational leadership practices and challenges in schools

This section provides results and discussion of data collected through face-to-face interviews with school principals of the sample schools. Structural coding was used to pull similar ideas together. The coded data was systematically organized to extract significant statements, and then three main themes were identified as shown below in table 1.

Table 1. Themes and sub themes

Themes	Sub themes
Transformational leadership practices by school leaders	Inspire and motivate teachers Consider and stimulate teachers
Challenges to transformational leadership in schools	School principals multiple responsibilities COVID-19 related activities Poor school environment
Link between school leaders transformational leadership and teachers job satisfaction	Effective transformational leadership raises teachers’ job satisfaction

4.3. Theme 1: Transformational leadership approaches by school leaders

4.3.1. Theme 1.1. Inspire and motivate teachers

Encourage the teaching staff to consider of new ideas and make plans for it are among the approaches to transformational leadership approaches in school. Aster, the deputy principal at Temnga Yazh, said that her school practice transformational leadership and she made an effort to encourage teachers to think critically, come up with innovative thoughts, and make plans for their future endeavors in collaboration with their colleagues. She added that department heads and vice principals assisted teachers in identifying areas for improvement in their work. Deribe similarly stated that he assists teachers in preparing yearly, monthly and weekly plans as well as organizing inputs such as course materials, books, and other supporting resources. He added that the school administration organizes training sessions to fill in teachers’ knowledge gaps about how to prepare and carry out plans. Deribe further noted that department heads, vice principals, and supervisors supported and monitored the plan’s progress. He also evaluates teachers’ works together with department heads twice a year and used results to improve teachers’ work better than before. (Fitawrary Abayneh Metekia secondary school principal)

Kassa, the vice principal of Medhanialem secondary school, claimed that the principals and teachers’ made an effort to foster growth in their school. He added that he received assistance from organizational vice principal such as (Organizing clubs and social committee), teaching-learning vice principal (facilitate planning, examination, supervision etc.) and teachers development vice principal (assess teachers’ need, arrange short-term training and follow teachers’ continuous professional development programs). For instance, the teaching-learning vice principal seek to identify and address the serious challenges faced by students. As a result, guidance and counseling club helps students with a variety of issues such as academic, gender and familial issues. Kassa added that he encouraged his teachers to grow professionally by participating in a variety of teacher development events and joining various clubs to broaden their horizons.

Moreover, school principals stated that when given the chance at the sub-city or woreda communication office, they try to present a bigger picture of the school through media, displaying noteworthy accomplishments on the school’s notice board and using platforms like Telegram, Facebook etc. School opportunities to publicize their works are also provided by student creative works. In this regard, Yacob, the principal of Millennium secondary school said that he made an effort to enhance the value of each teachers work so that it might contribute to the overall school goal. In an effort to alter teachers’ perceptions of what is crucial, he inspires them to adopt new ideas on their own situations as well as the chances and difficulties they face. He also tries to inspire teachers’ to be devoted to the school. Kaliti secondary school principal Kebede reported his experience on how to inspire teachers’ as follows:

As a principal, he is responsible for addressing school issues, motivating, influencing and supporting teachers on their classroom teaching. He told his teachers to set goals at the beginning of each academic year. Besides, he encourages teachers to apply their potential and creativity in the teaching-learning process. Similarly, Mulat, the principal of Dr. Addis Alemayehu secondary school, gave the following insights into the transformational leadership in his school as follows:

Since I became principal, I need to motivate and influence teachers. I am accountable for conducting assessment of teachers’ to fill gaps available for future improvements. I also have prepared plans for future direction, write reports and conduct meetings for the administrative and teaching staffs. Furthermore, I took part in many meetings at the school, sub-city, and regional levels. (Dr.Addis Alemayehu secondary school principal interviewee)

However, they reported that the low degree of teacher readiness to change the process made it difficult for their schools to reach the necessary level. Especially some teachers’ preference to keep the status quo was reportedly imposing serious problem to implement transformational leadership in school. Kebede stated his experience as follows

Yet, none of my efforts were successful because some school principals and teachers prefer to maintain the status quo. A few other teachers have a negative attitude towards change in the school because they associate it with politics. I also observed that while some other teachers’ bodies were at work, their minds were elsewhere some others also expressed to me a desire to leave the job rather than alter educational practices. (Kaliti secondary school interviewee-1)

The Temnga Yazh School principal, Yonas, claimed that he prepared a BSC plan for his school work with the help of concerned parties, including parents and teachers, assuming improvement and change in his school overall process. He also stated that he encourages teachers to challenge the current situation in their teaching and other school-related activities. However, about half of the teachers did not commit to improve student learning or change school activities. He said teachers just perform the activities to meet some requirements of the teaching and learning process. They run away from school when they finish their class lesson instead of working to change the school system. Few teachers’ were also frequently absent from class room teaching. So, it is hard to state that my school engages in high-level transformational leadership is exercised. (Temnga Yazh secondary school interviewee)

The respondents reported that the school principals serve as role models in all of their endeavors. Solomon, vice principal of Kaliti secondary school, for instance, believed that his actions serve as an example for his teachers. For example, he is punctual and shows confidence in all of his actions. Additionally, he trusts his teachers and tries to perform all of his tasks with ethics.

4.3.2 Theme 1.2. Consider and stimulate teachers’

The study’s participants stated that school leaders take into account each teacher’s needs and encourage professional growth in schools and out school activities. For instance, school administrators acknowledge teachers’ who achieve better results, such as better teaching, better research, and better engagement in clubs, and offer prizes in line with those achievements. Yacob, the principal of Millennium secondary school, expressed his experiences as follows:

I encourage my teachers’ to select a research topic and do individual or group study to address problems with teaching and learning. Accordingly, many studies have been conducted by my teachers. In order to fill my teachers’ gap through training and experience sharing, I also strive to find out their needs and aspiration in collaboration with the department head. As a result, teachers at my schools received short term training on a variety of topics. In addition, experienced teachers offered assistance to newly recruited teachers on how to plan lessons, write lesson notes, and prepare exams. I also strive to foster relationships among teachers’ by involving them in various committees and clubs so that they may support one another. Budget restrictions, however, had an impact on my school’s short-term training.

Participants in the study reported that school principals encourage teachers to develop new methods in order to teachers’ experiment with new teaching strategies and methods for carrying out all of other duties. They also assist teachers in creating more effective assignments for students. Ashenafi, the vice principal of Dr. Addis Alemayehu, stated that he encourages teachers to give learners well-prepared assignments that will aid in their study, experimentation, or creation of new concepts or products etc. He generally made an effort to assist teachers in creating assignments for students that could influence their conduct or go beyond the traditional teaching-learning process.

The results of this study show that transformational leadership is being practiced in Addis Ababa government secondary schools. However, there have been challenges related to the declining interest of teachers. In addition, teachers are mostly engaged in routine activities than creating new ideas.

4.4. Theme 2: Challenges related to transformational leadership in schools

4.4.1 Theme 2: 1. Multiple responsibilities

Addis Ababa secondary school principals were involved in a variety of daily activities as well as motivating, inspiring and influencing teachers. Study participants reported that their responsibilities, both in and out of school, imposing challenges to fully achieving the required level of transformational leadership success.

Correspondingly, Temnga Yazh’s deputy principal, Aster, reported that the presence of multiple responsibilities was a major problem she is encountering at her principalship. Thus, her many school responsibilities and participation in various in- and out-of-school meeting posed serious challenges to her transformational leadership practice.

Jemal, a school principal of Entoto Amba, has similar ideas to share. He reported that roles confusion in his school to bring change or participate in day-to-day operations. He has been compromising his leadership activities for routine activities. He was occupied with activities such as managing students’ behavior, managing teachers and discusses with students family, etc. instead of concentrating on developing new concepts and working methods. Therefore, he cannot focus his attention on fully engaging in transformational leadership efforts (Entot Amba secondary school interviewee).

4.4.2 Theme 2: 2. COVID-19‘s effects on transformational school leadership

Respondents reported that another obstacle preventing school leaders from achieving transformational leadership at a high level is the obligation to meet preventive practices of COVID-19. According to their report, rather than coming up with new ideas to inspire, stimulate and idealize influence of teachers to work for a change in school leadership, the purchase of soap and the construction of taps in several locations throughout the school compound for a large number of students require some amount of budget. For instance, Kassa, the principal of Medhanialem secondary school, shared the following insights from his experiences:

Teachers at my school share the virus by drinking and eating together, get sick, and miss classes for days. Similarly, many students were sick by the virus since they eat and play together. I therefore work to raise students’ and teachers’ awareness. Therefore, I cannot, therefore, limit my attention to transformational leadership. (Principal of Medhanialem secondary school interviewee)

Similar to Kassa, Deribe reported that his teachers’, administrative workers and students’ were sick due to COVID-19. For a few days, this virus made him ill, but he has since recovered. As result of his and the teachers’ involvement in assignments related to the routine teaching-learning process and assignments related to COVID-19, there is little transformational leadership practice in school. He claimed that a large budget had been allocated for this pandemic, at least to give students access to running water and soap. (Fitawrary Abayneh Metekia secondary school principal)

Respondents also expressed that teachers were absent from their teaching task by taking advantage of COVID-19. For instance, Abayneh, principal of MisrakGoh secondary school shared his experiences of what he has been facing. As he reported some were not coming to class repeatedly even when they have mild cough or other minor cases.

4.5. Theme 2: 3. School environment

Classrooms are usually overcrowded since some participants asserted that there are many students in one classroom. In this case, teachers’ are teaching too many students in one class room. Teachers, however, struggled to do it properly. Mulat, the principal of Dr. Addis Alemayehu secondary school, for example, described the challenges he has faced as a school leader as follows:

Due we have few classrooms in my school; the majority of our classrooms are congested with students. I also observed that teachers didn’t have enough time to assist many students. So, the relationship between teachers and students is deteriorating. Teachers prefer to help few students who have extreme behavioral and academical problems. (Principal of Dr. Addis Alemayehu secondary school interviewee)

Corresponding to Mulat’s explanation Kebede reported that the misconduct of students at school had an impact on their leadership activity. He reported that teachers were usually interrupted by misbehaving students in the classroom. They make an effort to offer counseling both within and outside of the classroom. Nonetheless, little progress was made and teachers’ were forced to use certain corporal punishment to students. But, some of those students quarrel with the teachers’. For instance, a student who had previously been disciplined by a chemistry teacher punched the teacher. (Kaliti secondary school interviewee-1)

Similary, Yihun noted the following mentioned by most of the study participants,

Ah, students’ misbehavior is common in my school. It is part of my daily routine. When teachers made them leave the classroom, some of them came to my office. Others even attempt to leave the school while classes are in session. I was supporting those students with all what happens. But, the process takes excessive time of my leadership activity specially to consider new ideas to school leadership. (Bole secondary school interviewee)

On the other hand, Mulat, principal of Dr. Addis Alemayehu secondary school explained that his school is at Chichinya back to Zerihun building and so many trade activities are taking place. He further asserted that several of his students left the classroom, particularly in the afternoons, to go to places where they could smoke shisha and chew chat.

Similar to Mulat, Sirak, vice principal of Entoto Amba, claimed that because of his school’s proximity to the Shiro Meda Market and some of the students’ are involved in local business activities, student absenteeism is common there.

4.6. Theme 3: Principals’ view on the influence of transformational leadership on teachers’ job satisfaction

4.6.1 Theme 3.1. Effective transformational leadership raises teachers’ job satisfaction

The study’s participants claimed that transformational leadership practices in schools have an impact on teachers’ job satisfaction and they agreed that transformational leaders are useful for enhancing teachers’ job satisfaction. Kassa, the principle of Medhanialem secondary school, believed that effective transformational leadership leads to high teachers’ job satisfaction. As he reported he understands the importance of satisfied teachers’ to attain school goal and try to show his respect for teachers and acknowledged their greater accomplishments. He added that he collaborates with universities, sub-city education offices, Woreda education offices, and other organizations to design training programs for teachers that could help to improve their job satisfaction. He further indicated that the use of a continuous feedback system to monitor teachers’ development and identify any problems they may be having in their work. However, he stated that the poor implementation of transformational leadership practices in schools contributes to lower levels of job satisfaction among teachers. Yacob, the principal of Millennium secondary school, shared his experiences of what he has been facing as follows:

I have a lot of things to get done. I have to address issues at school and make plans for them. In addition, I should help, guide and reward my teachers’. Yet, because I have too many responsibilities, I am unable to provide my teachers with high-level support. The reward systems are also less. Few teachers received rewards due to budget constraint. Hence, the job satisfaction of teachers in my school is low. (Millennium secondary school principal interviewee)

Similar thoughts are shared by Lemma. He made an effort to increase teachers’ job satisfaction by allocating appropriate work load to teachers’, offering incentives, assigning mentors for the new teachers’ and supporting the social committee so that they could connect in various social life activities. He further noted that at the end of the academic year, few high-performing teachers provided a little encouragement in the form of incentive like mobile, certificate and word-of-mouth praise. He reported that even though he plays numerous roles at school to maximize teachers’ job satisfaction it is impossible for him to increase teachers’ job satisfaction as he assumes. Furthermore, he has been sacrificing his transformational leadership school activities with routine responsibilities instead of idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration of teachers’ in their schools. (Lem secondary school interviewee)

Solomon, Kaliti secondary school vice principal participant also explained his ideas as follows:

I made an effort to assist teachers through giving materials in order to help them enhance their teaching-learning, and relationships with their coworkers because I noticed that they were more interested on those activities than the others. As a result, I can assert that teachers enjoy their work and interactions with their colleagues. Even though I want to increase my teachers’ job satisfaction, I am unable to do so due to time and financial constraints. The majority of my teachers don’t obtain housing assistance. I am unable to give them rewards for their better tasks accomplishments. As a result there is low teacher job satisfaction in my school. (Kaliti secondary school principal interviewee-2)

Correspondingly, Mulat, Dr. Addis Alemayehu secondary school’s principal, indicated that he tried to serve as a positive role model to teachers’ and he made an effort to offer incentives, motivate teachers to improve their teaching-learning process by applying new methods of teaching. However, he is unable to significantly increase teachers’ job satisfaction due to budgetary constraints, a lack of support from the Addis Ababa Education Bureau, and his routine school works.

5. Discussion

This study is aimed at investigating the practice of transformational leadership and its effect on teachers’ job satisfaction in government secondary schools of Addis Ababa. We found that school leaders apply various approaches to enhance transformational leadership in their school. As a result, they positively inspire, encourage, and influence teachers. In addition, principals and vice principals gave assistance to teachers in developing new teaching and planning strategies to realize their future endeavors in schools. They also carry out needed assessments to fill the gaps of teachers and offer training accordingly. School principals serve as role models in all of their actions. Principals offer incentives for some teachers’ and supporting the social committee so that they could connect and have fun together. In addition, principals tried to consider the need of each teacher and backing their professional development programs.

The results of this study are in line with Dolebo (2021), who found that school leaders often meet with their teams to stay in touch and encourage their members to create their own goals and objectives. Duressa and Asfaw (2014) and Tsehaye and Fekadu (2021) further noted that transformational leadership is practiced in the Ethiopian schools but it is scant. Tsehaye and Fekadu (2021) also found out that the school principals’ transformational leadership was hampered by the sub-city educational bureau’s needless interference in academic matters and imposition of political duties, little involvement of stakeholders, a lack of resources (teaching materials, lab space, and libraries), limitation of teachers’ to collaborate and prepare plan, a lack of parental involvement, conflict of interest caused by teachers’ involvement in other private schools during school hours on behalf of the public and disciplinary problems of students.

The study result also shows that multiple responsibilities were a major problem school principals encountering. This study result is consistence with Starratt (2005) domain of school leadership and found out that school leaders are responsible for many activities in and out of school such as responsibility as a human being, responsibility as a public servant, responsibility as an educator, and responsibility as an educational leader to engage in transformational process. Similarly, Aweke et al. (2017) and Turiye (2018) argued that poor leadership practice by school principals in Ethiopian schools since engage in several activities other than leading the teachers.

The results of this study demonstrate that an unfavorable workplace environment contributed to the ineffective practice of transformative leadership in schools. This result is consistent with the findings of a study by Edvik and Muhonen (2022) which revealed that school principals were unable to manage everyday tasks and other developmental activities because of poor working environment in schools. Ololube (2005) study result reveals that teachers’ were dissatisfied by the payment and benefits.

The study result further reveals that COVID-19 related activities impose burden on school principals not to focus on their transformational leadership activity. This result is similar to Ramos-Pla et al. (2021) study’s findings which states that principals were overloaded during the COVID-19 period, having to handle many routine activities and using more resources than before. He stated that some laissez-faire teachers’ would frequently miss class when they had a minor illness. Similarly, the study finding of Menon’s (2023) revealed that school principals during COVID-19 were unable to engage in transformational leadership at a high level because they were unable to inspire and motivate their staff members and some teachers’ miss classes as well for trivial reasons.

The result of this study further reveals that the low level of transformational leadership resulted low teacher job satisfaction in the sample schools. This finding is in line with Nyenyembe et al. (2016), Bogler (2001), and Hui et al. (2013) finding that suggested transformative leadership was related to teachers’ job satisfaction. Tesfaw (2014b) further claimed that transformational leadership influences every aspect of teachers’ job satisfaction.

6. Conclusion

The result of this study reveals that school leaders apply various strategies to enhance transformational leadership in schools such as giving assistance to teachers in developing new teaching and planning strategies, carrying out teachers’ need assessments, playing as role models in all of their actions, offering incentives, and supporting teachers’ professional development. Hence, school principals in Addis Ababa government secondary schools are being practicing transformational leadership.

The finding of the study further discloses that the majority of Addis Ababa’s secondary government school principals’ lack school leadership training. In order for school principals to have the necessary knowledge and abilities for their role, Addis Ababa Education Bureau should provide them with the opportunity for in-service school leadership training in collaboration with Universities.

The study further shows that effectiveness of transformational leadership is affected by multiple responsibilities of school principals, poor working environment and COVID-19 related activities. School leaders therefore need to delegate power to school governing bodies such as parents, teachers and student association to escalate transformational leadership practices.

The results of this study proposed that teachers are less active in transformational leadership activities in schools. School administrators should therefore actively encourage teachers to freely identify their needs for further training and professional development activities. In addition, school leaders should promote ongoing awareness programs on transformational school leadership to their staffs.

The result of this study indicates that transformational leadership influence teachers’ job satisfaction. If it is effectively done in school it will heighten teachers’ job satisfaction. If it is ineffective teachers’ job satisfaction will be low. Hence, transformational leadership practice should be improved to satisfy teachers at high level.

7. Limitation of the study

The data were collected during COVID-19 time. Hence, it was unable to access principals full open feelings of the non-verbal’s. Another challenge was school principals frequently attended meetings and it takes a longtime to obtain data from them. On the other hand, the study was limited to Addis Ababa city administration and might not be representative of all secondary schools in Ethiopia.

8. Implication

The result of this study indicates that school principals practicing transformational leadership in schools. The study’s findings also reveals that, despite being implemented in schools, transformational leadership is not accomplished at a high level, which affects teachers’ job satisfaction. The study further reveals effectiveness of transformational leadership is affected by multiple responsibilities of school principals, poor working environment and COVID-19 related activities. The results of this study proposed that teachers are less active in transformational leadership in schools. Hence, these findings do have practical implications in improving school principals’ transformational leadership and teachers’ job satisfaction in schools. Therefore, further study is needed to explore the practice of transformational leadership with more samples of the study.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Addis Ababa government secondary school principals’ research participants for their unreserved cooperation in participating in an interview to share their experiences. We would like to extend a special gratitude to the editors and reviewers at Cogent Education for their support in the editing and reviewing of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Addis Ababa University.