Abstract
Teacher job satisfaction levels can depend on the evaluation of teachers with regard to the perceived competence of the school management team to manage the school successfully. School management teams (SMTs) in South Africa encounter a diverse range of challenges in managing schools successfully. The policy on the South African Standards for Principalship promotes a more egalitarian model of leadership in which teachers at different post levels are accountable and by which negative effects linked to the top-down hierarchical system are minimised. This research study investigates teacher perceptions regarding the SMT competence to use a vision of excellence as an aspect of holistic leadership and its influence on teacher job satisfaction. Application of leadership in schools tends to be weak, increasingly so now due to COVID-19 and the surrounding confusion. The principal, even though merely one member of the SMT is the only person who will be held accountable by the Department of Education. SMTs do not usually have strong visions for their schools; they are not always able to cope with the fast changing circumstances at schools and they face diverse difficulties continuously. These factors contribute to teachers perceiving the school management team as incompetent in their management of the school and this has an enormous effect on teachers’ job satisfaction. An online closed-ended, structured questionnaire was distributed to research participants in schools in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. SPSS and AMOS 26 and process modelling were utilised to conduct a variety of tests such as factor analysis, structural equation model and mediation and moderation analysis. The findings of this research indicate a positive, direct association between the perceived competence of the SMT to utilise a vision of excellence as an aspect of holistic leadership and higher levels of teacher job satisfaction. The negative aspects of job satisfaction acted as moderating variables in a vision of excellence as a predictor and positive aspects of job satisfaction as outcome variables. It is evident that a more inclusive holistic leadership style will have a positive influence on teachers’ job satisfaction. The Department of Education should retain more of our experienced teachers if they experience higher levels of job satisfaction.
M.Ed. (Educational Leadership and Management)