ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to find out the influence of heads of schools management’s styles on teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools. Four specific objectives were developed to fulfill the purpose of the study; i) To examine type of leadership used by school heads to influence teachers’ levels of job performance with relation to trust and collaboration in public secondary schools in Kigamboni municipality. ii) To assess the relationship between the styles used by the heads in relation to teachers’ job performance in public secondary schools in Kigamboni municipality. iii) To find out the outcome head of school leadership to the performance of their subordinate in Kigamboni municipality. iv) To explore how the use of transformational leadership style contributes to the teacher’s job performance in Kigamboni District. Case study research design was employed in this study as it sought to collect in-depth information from the respondents. The study was conducted in Kigamboni municipality and in four different secondary schools characterized whereby 139 respondents were involved in the study including 132 teachers 3 second masters/mistress and 4 school heads. Teachers were randomly selected while school heads and deputies were purposively selected. Data were collected through closed ended questionnaire and unstructured interview. Quantitative data collected from closed-ended questionnaire were analyzed through descriptive statistics techniques and presented in tables and figures whereas qualitative data were coded and thematically analyzed. Findings have revealed that different leadership styles ranged from participative to non-participative are mostly used by the school heads to influence teachers work performance. The study revealed that, participative/democratic, autocratic and laissez-faire leadership styles were used in public secondary schools, at different situations. The leadership styles used was identified by means of looking on who has power to make decision in schools. The study further revealed that, participative leadership style dominated the other leadership styles used in public secondary schools. Autocratic leadership style (transactional) and laissez-faire (non-transactional) leadership were as well used.  It was also revealed that school heads in public secondary schools use different leadership styles in leading schools due to different reasons such as increase commitment among teachers. Moreover, school head used autocratic leadership to immediate issues which need to be addressed urgently. The study concludes that different leadership styles were needed for different situations in secondary schools and each head of school  has to know when to exhibit a particular approach. The study recommends that, School heads  should involve teachers in decision making in all matters regarding school administration in order to foster positive school climate. Furthermore, Tanzania Education Management Institute should design management courses that would enhance proper leadership skills that would promote positive school climate.