PRINCIPALS’ DECISION-MAKING STYLES AS PREDICTORS OF TEACHERS’ JOB COMMITMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN Anambra state, nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated principals’ decision-making styles as predictors of teachers’ job commitment in public secondary schools in Anambra State. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study.  The null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study used Correlational research design. The population of the study comprised 5,286 teachers in the 266 public secondary schools in Anambra State. The sample for this study comprised of 262 teachers drawn from the population of the study using multi stage sampling technique. Two sets of questionnaires titled: ‘‘Decision-Making Styles Scale (DMSS) and ‘‘Teachers’ Job Commitment Scale (TJCS)’’ were used for data collection. The face and construct validity of the instruments were established by experts.  The internal consistencies of the instruments were determined using Cronbach Alpha procedure to ascertain the reliability of the instruments. The average reliability of the instruments was 0.77. The research questions were answered using simple regression while the null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using simple regression. The findings of the study revealed that Principals’ decision-making style is a significant predictor of teachers’ job commitment in public secondary schools in Anambra State.  Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made: School principals should improve their rational decision-making style by using information to form the basis of decision-making that would go a long way to improve teachers’ job commitment. Principals should improve on their dependent decision-making style by constantly seeking the advice, support and guidance of staff to improve the quality of their decisions for improvement on the job commitment of teachers. Ministry of Education should provide minimum standards to guide the use of avoidance decision-making style that would bring about improvement on the job commitment of teachers.