Principal's Authentic Leadership Practices and Teachers’ Job motivation in the Secondary Cluster Schools of Excellence (SCSE) in Johor Bahru

Abstract

Authentic leadership is leadership that is genuine, authentic and prioritizes behavior according to ethical principles. The Malaysian Education Development Plan (PPPM) 2013-2015 through the 5th shift outlines the need to place high performance leadership in each school in order to keep up with changes in education at the global level. However, many reports and studies have found that there are still a few principals in schools who do not carry out their roles according to their actual duties. The objective of the study was to identify the level of principal's authentic leadership practices and the level of teachers’job motivation in the Secondary Cluster Schools Of Excellence (SCSE) in Johor Bahru. A quantitative method using a set of questionnaires as an instrument was selected and distributed to 187 teachers through purposive sampling from three SCSE in the Johor Bahru. The data was analyzed through the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 software. Overall, the findings showed that principals practice a high level of authentic leadership in parallel with a high level of job motivation among teachers of SCSE in Johor Bahru. The researcher suggested that the level of authentic leadership practices can be improved through additional courses or recognition of contributions on a monthly basis covering all areas. Empirical studies supported by qualitative methods taking into account of different target groups to deepen authentic leadership collectively with a focus on principals of private schools or various types of schools under the Malaysian Ministry of Education should be carried out in the future.