The Relationship between Leadership styles and Job Satisfaction in Eastern Ethiopian Public Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Effective leadership style is crucial to motivate and inspire followers for the success of an organization. The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between leadership styles and job satisfaction. A correlational quantitative research design was used to examine and determine the extent of predictors, and a total of 322 respondents were selected, using a systematic random sampling technique. The Pearson correlational result shows transformational leadership style has a significant and positive relationship with job satisfaction. Laissez-faire leadership style has a statistically negative relationship with extrinsic and general job satisfaction. Moreover, transactional leadership has no significant relationship with both intrinsic and general job satisfaction but with extrinsic job satisfaction. The beta coefficient indicated that a unit increase in transformational leadership changes about 0.29 units in general job satisfaction, and a unit increase in laissez-faire leadership changes about -0.11 decreases in general job satisfaction. Transformational leadership style has a significant positive effect on employee job satisfaction, but laissez-faire leadership style has a statistically negative effect on general job satisfaction. Therefore, self-reflection of the department heads on their leadership styles is needed and the university administration should provide different leadership training to improve the level of academic staff job satisfaction. The findings also serve as a foundation for other researchers to conduct further studies in the field. Additionally, more research is needed to identify other factors that could enhance job satisfaction among academic staff.