KEPIMPINAN TRANSFORMASIONAL, KEPUASAN KERJA GURU DAN PERANAN IKLIM SEKOLAH SEBAGAI MEDIATOR

Abstract

The role of principals is getting more crucial and challenging nowadays. Principals have to be smart to choose and suit the best leadership styles to be implemented in schools. Thus, the relationships between transformational leadership, school climate, and teachers’ job satisfaction were explored. It examined on how this style of leadership impacted education, specifically the implications for school climate and teacher job satisfaction. This study tested the direct effect of transformational leadership on teachers’ job satisfaction and the indirect effect of the relationship through the school climate as a mediator. A strong, effective transformational leadership will produce highlevel job satisfaction, while the school climate acts as a driving force to pursue the goals. The effectiveness of these two elements enhances the job satisfaction of teachers in order to ensure the success of educational institutions. A total of 355 teachers were selected randomly from 18 secondary schools with high academic achievement in the State of Kelantan. The study collected the data through a cross-sectional survey method. The questionnaire consisted of 44 items. The IBM SPSS software was implemented to analyze the correlation and regression tests. The Pearson correlation analysis showed positive and significant relationships between the three variables, namely the strong correlation for transformational leadership and school climate (r=.75, p<.01), as well as between transformational leadership and job satisfaction (r=.76, p<.01). Besides, the correlation was high between school climate and job satisfaction (r=.93, p<.01) as well. The regression analysis for the effect of transformational leadership on teachers’ job satisfaction showed that R2=.58, p<.01 was significant. The beta value showed that the transformational leadership contributed 0.76 (76%), significantly affecting job satisfaction. The multiple regression analysis of transformational leadership and school climate on teachers’ job satisfaction confirmed that R2=.87, p<.01 was significant. However, beta values showed that transformational leadership contribution decreased to 0.14 (14%) significantly affected teachers’ job satisfaction as the school climate predictor was included in the regression model. The beta value showed that school climate contributed 0.82 (82%), significantly influenced teachers’ job satisfaction, and acted as a partial mediator variable for transformational leadership and teachers’ job satisfaction. The finding of this study proposes significant transformational leadership relationships to influence school climate and enhance teachers’ job satisfaction. Thus, the study suggests that transformational leadership should be practiced by all principals to enhance a healthy school climate and job satisfaction.