Educational Research and Review Vol. 5 (9), pp. 492-498, September 2010
Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/ERR2
ISSN 1990-3839 ©2010 Academic Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Leadership style of school head-teachers and their
colleague’s work-family conflict
Ijaz Ahmed Tatlah and Uzma Quraishi
University of Management and Technology Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
Accepted 2 August, 2010
This paper aims to investigate the relationship of people-oriented and task-oriented leadership styles
with the work-family and family-work conflicts and the intensity of mutual relationship between workfamily and family-work conflicts. Data for the research were collected through a survey of public sector
elementary and secondary school teachers of Punjab in Pakistan. Factor analysis and Pearson’s
correlation were used to estimate the relationship of people-oriented and task-oriented leadership style
with the work-family and family-work conflicts. The results show that the three underpinnings of
relationship are positively related with each other. Significant relationship exists in the work-family and
family-work conflict. People-oriented managers and principals are significantly more facilitators than
task-oriented administrators at elementary and secondary school level. Leaders at higher levels of
people orientation mediate the work-family conflicts between work commitment and family obligations.
The research focuses on teachers at public school education sector; further research in other sectors
may be necessary before generalization can be made on the entire service sector. In this study peopleoriented leadership style plays an important role in work family conflict. People-oriented managers tend
to be more spurring than task-oriented. Although, there are studies on relationship work family and
family work conflict but research on leadership roles in it is very limited. By contributing to the body of
knowledge in this area, this research adds significant value. Moreover, the study presents valuable
information on the leadership behaviour of teachers, which may be unfamiliar to many readers.
Key words: Task-oriented, people-oriented, leadership style, work-family conflict, family-work conflict, teachers,
public sector.
INTRODUCTION
Working individuals face the problem of harmonizing the
responsibilities of work and family almost on daily basis
(Williams and Allliger, 1992). Though, delivering
simultaneously at one hand, benefits psychologically in
terms of status, ego, gratification and increased selfesteem, yet it outlays in terms of role strain, psychological distress and somatic complaints, on the other
hand (Frone et al., 1992). For instance, work which is
more demanding but the returns are disappointing, may
augment the prospects of work-family strain, and while
*Corresponding author. E-mail: tatlah333@yahoo.com,
uzma@umt.edu.pk
work that is compensatory may lessen the probability of
strain. Further, experiencing both the role may have
mutual effects, affecting the perceptions and behavior in
one to a certain degree by understanding in the other
(Williams and Alliger, 1992).
Work-family conflict is defined as an inter-role conflict
where the role stresses from the work and family spheres
of influence are reciprocally irreconcilable, making it
difficult to participate in one role owing to the demands of
the other (Aryee et al. (1998). Experiencing added
conflict between the roles, reduces the intensity of job
and life contentment. Work-family conflict not only
influences the psychological interests of individuals but
also impacts upon their work-related mindset e.g.
departmental loyalty, bindings and work-related conductsuch as nonattendance, lethargy and turnover (Carlson
and Perrewe, 1999). Resultantly, organizational familyresponsive policies are being introduced in many
industrialized countries, assisting working parents to
manage both the work and family responsibilities (Aryee
et al., 1998). Unfortunately, these arrangements have not
affected the work-family conflict positively (Kossek and
Ozeki, 1998).
Work family conflict has widely been explored during the
last few decades, considering and dealing with work and
family roles being of one construct (Netemeyer et al.,
1996). Another study exposes that connectivity potency
involving work-family conflict and contentment may
possibly mirror variations in the procedures exercised
and in the test investigation. As argued before,
demanding and unscheduled work may benefit in terms
of showing oneself a perfect line of attack, consequently
building self-image for a better family life. To end with,
current analysis reckon minor work-family conflict in the
presence of encouraging association with the working
colleagues and the managers, encountering arousing
desires at workplaces as well (Repetti and Cosmas,
1991). Commonly, work-family conflict is classified as
role conflict between employees’ work and family roles
(Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). Study reveals that
compassionate and helpful work-family environment
positively associates to employees’ magnificent pledge to
an organization. Hence a task-oriented leadership style
links unconstructively to work-family conflict while peopleoriented leadership style constructively links with the
work-family and family-work conflict Thompson et al.
(1999). Making available the resources of lessening
work-family conflict and an atmosphere, persuading them
to benefit, obviously they will feel relaxed and ultimately
devoted and loyal to their organization. That’s why workfamily culture of an organization wins over employees’
organizational loyalty (Thompson et al., 1997).
The studies have been made for so many organizations
but the field of education is still unattended. Being an
important and very purposeful future concerned area that
plays a vital role in the human manufacturing is
necessarily to be studied especially in Pakistani context.
That is why the researcher was interested in determining
if and how high leadership style of public sector
elementary and secondary schools influence the workfamily conflict, which seem to predispose employees to
exhaustion, burnout, absenteeism, and turnover, may be
related to the performance of non-essential helping
behaviors in organizations.
Objectives
The purpose of this study is to find relationships between
leadership styles like people-oriented and task-oriented
and work-family conflict and Family-work conflict. In
other words, it was aimed to be familiar with the
intensity of relationship that let down the conflict of
Tatlah and Quraishi 493
teachers at public sector schools towards their family
METHODOLOGY
The hypothesis of the current research is that, “leadership
styles have significant relationship with the work-family conflict
of teachers at elementary and secondary schools level”.
Categorically subsequent hypotheses can be described as null
hypotheses:
H1- People-oriented leadership style towards teachers in
public sector elementary and secondary schools have not any
significant correlation with the work-family conflict.
H2- People-oriented leadership style towards teachers in
public sector elementary and secondary schools have not any
significant correlation with the family-work conflict.
H3- work-family conflict and family-work conflict of teachers in
public sector elementary and secondary schools have not any
significant correlation with each other.
H4-a- People-oriented leadership style and task-oriented
leadership style of teachers in public sector elementary and
secondary schools have not any significant correlation with
each other.
H4-b- Task-oriented leadership style towards teachers in
public sector elementary and secondary schools have not any
significant correlation with the work–family conflict.
H4-c- Task-oriented leadership style towards teachers in
public sector elementary and secondary schools have not any
significant correlation with the family-work conflict.
To investigate these relationships a survey research design
has been adopted.
Sample
The sample used in this study was comprised of 123 male and
123 female (n = 246), employees of Punjab Public Sector
Schools Education Department Punjab, Pakistan. The teachers
component was chosen so as to make sure the respondents
are likely to be experienced professionals. A total of 300
teachers were contacted during this study and 246 of them
willingly participated in the survey. The sample size, response
rate and demographic mix were considered sufficient to
perform meaningful statistical analyses and develop
appropriate sense.
Research instruments
A questionnaire developed by Sergiovanni, Metzcus, and Burden
(1969) and adopted by Ritchie and Thompson, 1984. was divided
into four sections: section ‘A’ was designed to establish
research credibility, discuss the research objectives, benefits
for respondents, describe survey mechanics and most
importantly assure respondent’s confidentiality; section ‘B’
contain items related to work-family conflict, section ‘C’
comprised of the items related to family-work conflict, section ‘D’
solicited respondent’s demographical data. A five point Likert
scale with responses ranging from strongly disagree to
strongly agree was used for all items. In the similar fashion the
Cronbach`s alpha were calculated for work- family conflict and
family- work conflict and found the acceptable values 0.64 and
0.66. Similarly for the assessment of leadership researcher has
used T-P Leadership Questionnaire that was originally developed
by Sergiovanni et al. (1969) and adapted by Ritchie and Thompson,494 Educ. Res. Rev.
Table 1. Factor analysis: Family -work conflict (FWC), (N = 246).
Eigen value 01.45
Variance explained 21.21
Mean 13.52
Std. deviation 04.60
Items Factor loading
The amount of time my job takes up makes it difficult to fulfill family responsibilities. 0.72
The demands of my work interfere with my home family life. 0.66
Things I want to do at home do not get done because of the demands my job puts on me. 0.61
The demands of my family/spouse interfere with work-related activities. 0.57
Things I want to do at work don’t get done because of the demands of my family / spouse. 0.53
I have to put off doing things at work because of demands on my time at home. 0.50
My job produces strain that makes it difficult to make changes to my plans for family activities. 0.31
Method: Principal component analysis rotation: Varimax
KMO 0.48
Bartlett’s test 50.33
Guttmann split half 0.43
Cronbach`s alpha 0.66
1984. This scale consists of 30 statements measuring major
characteristics of leadership styles task-oriented and peopleoriented. Through this questionnaire one can identify its relative
emphasis on two dimensions of leadership; Task orientation (T) and
people orientation (P). These are not opposite approaches, and an
individual can rate high or low on either or both. The Cronbach`s
alpha was calculated for people oriented and task oriented
leadership style items used in the questionnaire and found the
acceptable values 0.62 and 0.61.
Analysis
All of the data collected on the family –work conflict variables
were analyzed, using the principal component method of
extraction and Varimax rotation. It was examined to determine
whether the factors satisfied the Kaiser criterion (Eigenvalues ~
1) the KMO = 0.48, Bartlett’s Test = 50.33, Cronbach`s Alpha =
0.66, Eigenvalues = 1.45, Variance = 21.21, Mean = 13.52 and
Standard Deviation = 4.60 were found as per a prior knowledge
a single-factor solution was expected (Table 1).
Exploratory factor analysis for work-family conflict
All of the data collected on the Work-family conflict variables
were analyzed, using the principal component method of
extraction and Varimax rotation. It was examined to determine
whether the factors satisfied the Kaiser criterion. KMO = 0.60,
Bartlett’s Test = 274.43, Cronbach`s Alpha = 0.64, Eigenvalues
= 2.30, Variance = 0.56, Mean = 2.71 and Standard deviation =
0.75 were found. As per a previous knowledge a single-factor
solution was expected.
Accordingly factor analysis was conducted for the leadership
styles and work-family conflict using a multi-step process which
includes; (a) extracting the factors; (b) labeling the factors; c)
creating summated scales and examining the descriptive
statistics (Hair et al., 2006).The data were analyzed stepwise.
Exploratory factor analysis, using the principal component
matrix, extraction method and Varimax rotation, was used to
determine the factor structure of 15 items related to peopleoriented leadership style. Second an exploratory factor
analysis using 20 items related to task-oriented leadership
style of teachers using method of extraction and Varimax
rotation. Same method of an exploratory factor analysis using
10 items related to work-family and family-work conflict was
executed to determine the factor structure of these items.
Finally, spearman’s correlations were used to probe the
correlation coefficient of people-oriented leadership style, taskoriented leadership style, work-family conflict and family-work
conflict (Table 2).
Exploratory factor analysis for people-oriented leadership
style
All of the data collected on the people-oriented leadership
style variables were analyzed, using the principal component
extraction method and Varimax rotation. It was examined to
determine whether the factors satisfied the Kaiser criterion
(Eigenvalues ~ 1) the KMO = 0.62, Bartlett’s Test = 270.74,
Cronbach`s Alpha = 0.65, Eigenvalues = 2.33, Variance = 0.33,
Mean = 2.47 and Standard Devia
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