Impact of Principal Leadership Styles on Teacher Job Performance: An Empirical Investigation

This study is intended to investigate the relationship and effect of principal leadership styles on teacher job performance at public secondary schools in Faisalabad city, Punjab, Pakistan. Given a correlational design purpose, data were assembled by drawing a sample of 102 principals and 512 teachers through self-administered questionnaires. The first instrument titled “Questionnaire for Principal Leadership Style” (QPLS) comprises three subscales, all reflecting a high degree of internal consistency, namely, autocratic leadership (α = 0.832), democratic leadership (α = 0.759), and laissez-faire leadership (α = 0.852). The second tool, Questionnaire for Teacher Job Performance (QTJP), also indicates good reliability (α = 0.813). Regarding the verification of the research questions and hypotheses, percentages, multiple regression, and Pearson's correlation coefficient were subsequently performed at the significance level of p < 0.05. As the findings attest, 59.3% of the variation in teacher job performance was statistically explained as the result of shared involvement of principal autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire leadership styles. The results also revealed that the autocratic leadership constituted the largely exercised style, significantly exerting a strong and positive impact on teacher job performance, while the impact of laissez-faire leadership style was either problematic or unhelpful. Ultimately, the findings suggest that the principals under study should leverage a wise integration of leadership styles according to specific circumstances of their respective schools.