Leadership Style and Job Satisfaction: Comparative Study in Public and Private School Teachers at Secondary Level in Mfoundi Division, Cameroon

This study aims to ascertain whether discrepancies exist in job satisfaction levels based on the leadership style of public and private secondary school head-teachers, within a social context influenced by country risk. If such differences exist, this study seeks to pinpoint their origins. This research uses two instruments previously developed for large-scale surveys on leadership style CELID (Castro and al., 2004) and job satisfaction S2/26 (Dominguez and al., 2016). For the purpose of this study, two questionnaires were designed: the CELID questionnaire, comprising 32 items and 3 options, and the S2/26 questionnaire, which includes 24 items and 2 options. A sample of 195 teachers was selected for the study, out of a population size of 902 teachers and an effective population of 656 public and private school teachers. The findings of the study indicate the presence of disparities in the levels of job satisfaction among teaching professionals in private and public schools. This divergence can be attributed to the intrinsic or extrinsic motivational choices originating in a situational leadership style, in particular the employee variant, which is prevalent in both the public and private sectors. This leadership style is characterised by an emphasis on achieving organisational goals within the context of school activities. The predominant leadership factors contributing to these variations are predictors such as transformation, transaction and laissez-faire, which serve to reinforce the institutional and social interaction between secondary school heads and teachers.