Leadership Styles and Turnover Intentions of Public Secondary School Teachers in Dodoma, Tanzania: The Mediating Role of Team-Member Exchange

Abstract

Using a survey study design with 133 public secondary school teachers in Dodoma, this paper explores the relationship between leadership style (both Transformational and Transactional) and teachers’ turnover intentions with mediating effect of Team Member Exchange. The study found that teachers’ turnover intentions have a negative relation with transformational leadership style, while transactional leadership style has a positive relationship. Also, TMX was observed to have a positive relationship with transformational leadership style, while transactional leadership style has a negative relationship. Despite teachers’ turnover intentions and TMX being observed to have a negative relationship, there was no mediating effect of TMX on transformational leadership style and teachers’ turnover intentions. At the same time, there was a negatively mediating effect of TMX between transactional leadership style and teacher turnover intentions. The findings of this study provided insight into a leadership style that may be used to motivate and encourage teachers to work even more complex and reduces turnover intention. The findings can help develop strategies and programmes for heads of schools to improve their leadership styles that would enable the retention of public secondary school teachers.