This quantitative study addressed the idea that a middle school principal could possibly impact teacher effectiveness in the classroom through the relationship of the teacher- perceived leadership style of the principal to teacher job satisfaction and efficacy. The sample consisted of 142 certified teachers from 8 public middle schools in an East Tennessee school district. Teachers completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, (Bass & Avolio, 2004) and the Job Satisfaction Survey, (Spector, 1994). Findings from this study suggest that the middle school teachers' perceptions of their principal's leadership did not have a statistically significant relationship to teacher job satisfaction. A new insight from this study suggests that principals should find ways to lead beyond teacher perceptions to address the needs of teachers in order to promote and encourage higher levels of teacher job satisfaction. Furthermore, findings from this study suggest that the middle school teachers' perceptions of their principal's leadership style had a statistically significant relationship to teacher efficacy. Findings from the exploratory question at the end of the surveys further validated this study by indicating teachers perceived their need for principal leadership to help them become more effective in the classroom by incorporating elements of both transformational and transactional leadership. This research may assist in developing leadership style training for principals desiring to indirectly influence academic achievement by influencing teacher job satisfaction and efficacy within their schools.

This study examined the leadership style of high school principals and its effectiveness as perceive by teachers of a Mid-South school district. Particularly, this study explored the correlations between principal leadership style to teacher job satisfaction and overall school morale. Collectively, 60 teachers participated in the study across one Mid-South school district. The results were collected through online surveys and individual structured interviews. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t test, one-way ANOVAs, and multiple regressions were used to analyze significance. The relationship between administrative leadership style and teacher perceived job satisfaction was strong and significant. The relationship between principal support and positive school morale was moderate and significant. Lastly, the relationship between years of teaching experience and reported job satisfaction showed no significance.

This quantitative case study examined teacher perceptions within one rural, public East Tennessee school district of principal leadership styles based upon Kouzes and Posner's five domains: challenge the process, enable others to act, encourage the heart, inspire a shared vision, and model the way to determine if a dominate domain existed within teacher perception of the principal's leadership style. Principals who understand the effectiveness and impact that different leadership styles have upon the school environment, specifically teacher perceptions, generally identify with a particular style allowing the creation of a positive educational environment (Rowland, 2008). Teacher understanding of principals' leadership styles increased self-awareness and job satisfaction the teacher achieved. Effectively decreasing the chances of teacher burnout and job-related stress (Meador, 2016).

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.