Date of Degree

12-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Program

Education

Advisor

Sharon Herbers

Advisor

Stephanie Hartzell

Advisor

Ala Alahmad

Abstract

This quantitative, correlation study explored the leadership styles of the department chairs in the College of Education at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as perceived by the full-time faculty members. This exploration was used to examine the relationship between leadership styles and faculty’s overall job satisfaction, and to determine to what extent these leadership styles predicted the faculty’s overall job satisfaction. The theoretical framework for this study was the Full Range Leadership theory, which consists of three leadership styles and considered the independent variables for the study: transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership. The dependent variable for the study was the overall satisfaction level of the faculty members. Data for the research were collected from an online survey through SurveyMonkey using the Multifactor Leadership 5x Questionnaire and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. The sample consisted of 152 faculty members from the College of Education at King Saud University, which is considered to be one of the largest public universities in Saudi Arabia. The methods used to analyze the data and answer the research questions included descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation test, and multiple regression analyses. The findings of this study revealed that the transformational leadership style was the most often exercised style by the department chairs, followed closely by the transactional leadership style, while the passive/avoidant leadership style was perceived to be used the least. The correlation results showed that a statistically strong positive relationship existed between the transformational and transactional leadership styles of the department chairs and the faculty members’ overall job satisfaction, while a statistically weak negative relationship existed between the passive/avoidant leadership style and the faculty members’ overall job satisfaction. The regression model was statistically significant, and the three independent variables explained approximately 47.8% of the variance in the faculty members’ overall job satisfaction. The transformational leadership style was the only statistically significant predictor of the faculty members’ overall job satisfaction. Finally, implications for theory and practice are offered and suggestions for future research are provided.

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