School Heads’ Competence and Management Practices as Predictors to the Job Satisfaction of Teachers

This study investigated the influence of school heads’ competence and management practices on the job satisfaction of public elementary school teachers in Montevista District, Davao de Oro Division. Grounded in the Two-Factor Theory of Motivation by Herzberg and related leadership frameworks, the research was driven by challenges in teacher retention, morale, and instructional leadership. Using a descriptive-correlational design, data were collected from 100 teachers across seven schools through adapted survey questionnaires. Results revealed that school heads demonstrated very high levels of competence, with mean scores of 3.67 for demonstrating strong ethics and 3.58 for authenticity. Management practices were also rated very high overall with a mean of 3.62, led by strategic planning with a mean score of 3.67, followed by people management and innovation both having a mean of 3.59. Teachers reported high levels of job satisfaction, particularly in leadership of school heads with a mean score of 3.56, while work environment scored the lowest with a mean of 3.16, interpreted as high. Correlation analysis showed a moderately significant relationship between school heads’ competence and teacher job satisfaction with a r-value of 0.562 and p-value of 0.001, while management practices also showed a moderate correlation with an r-value of 0.590 with a p-value of < 0.001. Regression analysis revealed authenticity as the only significant predictor of teacher satisfaction among competence domains, while none of the management domains showed predictive significance. These findings emphasized the importance of authentic leadership in fostering teacher engagement and suggest that leadership approaches may be more effective than isolated management practices.