The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the relationship between elementary teachers' perceptions of their principal's leadership behavior and how these perceptions relate to their job satisfaction. Perceptions were measured by the Leadership Behavior Instrument and the Job Satisfaction Survey. The respondents for the surveys worked in Southeast Tennessee and Northeast Mississippi. This study was guided by the following four questions: 1: How do elementary teachers perceive the leadership behavior of principals in the domains of human relations, trust/decision making, instructional leadership, control, and conflict; 2) To what extent to elementary teachers express satisfaction with their jobs in the domains of supervision, contingent rewards, operating procedures, coworkers, nature of work, and communication; 3) What is the relationship between elementary teachers' perceptions of their leaders' leadership behaviors in the domains of human relations, trust/decision making, instructional leadership, control, and conflict and their overall job satisfaction; and 4) Are there differences in the extent of the relationship between teachers' perceptions of their leaders' leadership behaviors in the five domains, and their overall job satisfaction by variables such as level of education, amount of time at current school, and years of teaching experience? The results of this study indicated that there is a strong correlation between teachers' perceptions of leadership behavior and their job satisfaction. The results of this study did not find a significant correlation between job satisfaction and level of education, amount of time at current school, and years of teaching experience.

In public schools, the principal's role is of paramount importance in influencing teachers to excel and to keep their job satisfaction high. The self-efficacy of leaders is an important characteristic of leadership, but this issue has not been extensively explored in school principals. Using internet-based questionnaires, this study obtained scores on the self-report Principal Sense of Efficacy Scale, including areas of management, instructional, and moral leadership, of 50 elementary, middle, and high school principals in Arizona. These scores were compared to their teachers' perceptions of their leadership (N = 1403 across the 50 schools), using the Leadership Behavior Survey, including subscales on human relations, trust/decision making, instructional leadership, control, and conflict. Teachers reported intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction on the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. As hypothesized, teacher job satisfaction was strongly related to perceptions of their principal's leadership in all areas (total satisfaction ©7 overall perception: r = .645, p

Research has shown that various leadership styles have different impacts on leader outcomes such as satisfaction, extra effort, and effectiveness. Specifically, researchers have found that transformational leadership positively impacts follower perceptions of satisfaction, extra effort, and leader effectiveness (Avolio, Bass, & lung, 1995; Philbin, 1997; Yammarino, Spangler, & Bass, 1993). However, research has shown that not all leaders display transformational leadership. In fact, Eagly, Karau, & lohnson (1992) and their colleagues have shown transformational leadership in education to be linked to the extent to which male and female principals carry out their gender roles - referring to role congruity. Currently, not much is known empirically about the relationship between the role of the elementary school principal leadership and gender roles and its combined effects on teachers' perceived satisfaction, perceived effectiveness of their principals, and their assessment of extra effort put forth towards their job. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between leadership style (transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire) and psychological gender role group (masculine, feminine, undifferentiated, androgynous) of elementary school principals. Exploration of this topic filled a void in empirical investigations of the psychological gender perspective of school leadership. Multivariate Analysis of Variance techniques were used to examine the relationships between and among principal psychological gender role, biological gender, principal effectiveness, teacher satisfaction, and teacher extra effort. Additionally, canonical correlation was used to examine the relationship between leadership factor variable set and psychological gender role variable set. Results detected one relationship exists between psychological gender role and leadership behavior variable sets. Specifically, findings suggest femininity, masculinity, idealized influence attribute, idealized influence behavior, inspiration-motivation, intellection stimulation, individual consideration, contingent reward, and laissez-faire provide the best linear combinations of Pearson correlations between the leadership behavior and psychological gender role variable sets. In addition, results indicated statistically significant differences in perceived principal effectiveness, teacher perceived satisfaction, and teacher extra effort based on teacher perceived level of principal psychological gender. Teachers who perceived their principals as androgynous and feminine reported higher levels of extra effort, satisfaction, and principal effectiveness. Leadership behavior did not appear to have a significant influence on extra effort, satisfaction, and principal effectiveness. Additionally, the interaction effect between perceived principal psychological gender role group and principal biological gender was not statistically significant.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the perceived leadership style of the principal and late career teacher job satisfaction. In addition, the impact of demographic variables including age, race, and gender were explored. The participants consisted of 70 late career K-6 teachers in 17 elementary schools across three school districts in Southern Arizona. The participants completed two survey instruments. Interview data was also collected. Pearson product-moment correlation tests were used to analyze the relationship between nine leadership variables describing transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership, and intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction variables. Correlation tests were also used to examine the relationship between leadership variables and demographic variables. Multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the intercorrelations between leadership and demographic variables and extrinsic and intrinsic satisfaction. The examination of the relationship between leadership variables and intrinsic and extrinsic variables produced several significant findings. The relationship between leadership variables and demographic variables also produced several significant findings. The multiple regression analyses identified a significant relationship between the perception of Idealized Influence and extrinsic satisfaction. A significant relationship was also found between Contingent Reward and intrinsic satisfaction. Qualitative data from individual teacher interviews supported these findings. The overall findings from this study suggest that late career teachers' perceptions of their principals' leadership styles impact intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. More specifically, some transformational and transactional variables had a positive impact on job satisfaction. These findings suggest that a balance of transactional and transformational leadership styles may be most effective for school leaders wishing to improve the satisfaction of late career teachers. A model was developed to describe the findings of the study. The Leadership-Satisfaction model provides an additional perspective on the relationship between perceived leadership and satisfaction by illustrating that perceived leadership impacts extrinsic and intrinsic factors which affect the overall picture of satisfaction.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of teachers as to how the leadership of their principal affects their job satisfaction. This study collected the view of teachers at different career stages and examined their perceptions and needs. The participants consisted of 12 elementary school teachers at three different career stages. Qualitative analysis of the interview data revealed three major themes and nine subthemes. The first theme reveals that principal leadership style is not consistent and includes the subthemes: principals are not successfully sharing their vision with teachers, principals attempt to support teachers, but are not able to meet all their needs, and principals are only partially perceived as effective leaders. The second theme reveals that teachers find satisfaction in their jobs and includes the subthemes: teachers find job satisfaction working with people, teachers are satisfied with the curriculum they teach, and teacher job satisfaction is affected by principal leadership. The final theme reveals that, teacher needs are based on career stage, and includes the subthemes: beginning teachers would like more support, middle stage teachers seek more time to collaborate with colleagues and prepare for classroom instruction, late career stage teachers seek more support in learning how to educate todays students. This study confirmed that principal leadership effort can affect job satisfaction, and that principals need to be aware of the needs of their teachers. It also confirms that knowledge of teacher career stages can help principals create better working partnerships and determine the professional development needs of their staff. The findings of this study contribute to the literature on teacher job satisfaction and principal leadership by providing a better understanding of how teacher job satisfaction can be impacted by the perceptions that teachers have of principal leadership.

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between principals' sense of achievement and teachers' perceptions of their principals' leadership behaviors. This was determined by examining job satisfaction of principals and leadership style using the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) and the School District's Climate Survey. The population for this study was teachers and principals in a large suburban school district in the Richmond, VA area. Participating schools were selected using a convenience sample based upon those in the school district's annual school climate survey rotation. Of the district schools scheduled for the climate survey, only those that had their principal in place for a minimum of 1 year were chosen to participate. There were nine schools on the cycle for the 2011-2012 school year that met this criteria, yielding 9 principals and approximately 500 teachers. Data were collected from 5 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 2 high schools. The principals were asked to complete the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire Sense of Achievement subscale survey. Teachers in the selected schools had recently participated in the School District's Climate Survey. Data for this study came from the Leadership subscale of the survey. Descriptive statistical analysis revealed that principals generally are satisfied with the sense of achievement they have in their jobs. Data suggest they are most satisfied with having the opportunity to do something worthwhile and less satisfied with seeing the results of their work. Descriptive statistical analysis revealed that teachers generally are satisfied with their principals' leadership behaviors. A Pearson correlation was run to determine the relationship between the mean scores of the principals' sense of achievement and the teachers' perceptions of their principals' leadership behaviors. The data revealed that there was no statistically significant relationship between teachers' perceptions of their principals' leadership behaviors and principals' sense of achievement. While no significant relationship between the two data sets was found, analysis supports the need for principals to be satisfied with their jobs in order to create the open climate necessary for teachers to cultivate a collaborative approach to their craft. Teachers in an open climate are more likely to cooperate and are more committed to their job and each other.