Author: Dr. Harsha Sharma
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.70798/Bijmrd/04071012
Abstract: The teaching profession is the cornerstone of human development, yet school teachers in India continue to grapple with mounting workloads, inadequate compensation, restricted professional autonomy, and limited administrative support — all of which erode their Quality of Work Life (QWL). This empirical study investigates the relationship between the Quality of Work Life of school teachers and the Leadership Behaviour of school heads in Indore District, Madhya Pradesh. Anchored in a descriptive-correlational research design, data were collected from 240 school teachers drawn from government, private aided, private unaided, and central government schools across Indore District using stratified random sampling. Two validated instruments were employed — a 30-item Quality of Work Life Scale measuring six dimensions (Workload and Stress, Autonomy and Control, Compensation and Benefits, Work Environment, Growth and Development, and Work-Life Balance) and a 24-item Leadership Behaviour Scale assessing five leadership styles (Transformational, Transactional, Servant, Laissez-Faire, and Autocratic). Both instruments demonstrated excellent internal consistency with Cronbach alpha exceeding 0.87. Descriptive statistics revealed that while teachers in Indore District reported moderate-to-high QWL overall (M = 3.50), dimensions related to Compensation and Benefits (M = 3.28) and Work-Life Balance (M = 3.35) remained critically underdeveloped. Pearson product-moment correlation analysis established a strong, significant positive relationship between leadership behaviour and overall QWL (r = 0.67, p < 0.01), with the strongest associations observed in Growth and Development (r = 0.65) and Autonomy and Control (r = 0.62). Oneway ANOVA revealed significant differences in QWL across leadership style groups (F = 14.87, p < 0.001), with transformational leadership (M = 3.89) and servant leadership (M = 3.81) associated with substantially higher QWL compared to autocratic (M = 3.04) and laissez-faire (M = 3.12) styles. Simple linear regression confirmed that leadership behaviour is a significant predictor of teacher QWL (beta = 0.672, p < 0.001), accounting for 45.1 percent of the total variance (R-squared = 0.451). These findings underscore the pivotal role school principals play in shaping the professional well-being of teachers. The study calls for structured leadership development programs, participatory school governance frameworks, and policy reforms targeting teacher compensation in Indore District and the broader Madhya Pradesh school system.
Keywords: Quality of Work Life, Leadership Behaviour, Transformational Leadership, School Teachers, Pearson Correlation, Educational Management
Page No: 60-69