Leading beyond the Job Description: Investigating the Association between Principals' Leadership Styles and Teachers' Organizational Citizenship Behaviors in North Wollo Secondary Schools.

BACKGROUND: Unpredictable school leadership and a lack of participative decision-making hinder school effectiveness in Ethiopia, particularly in conflict-affected areas experiencing high teacher burnout and system disruptions. This study investigates how transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles associate with teachers' organizational citizenship behaviors in secondary schools of the North Wollo Zone, Amhara Region. METHODS: An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed. Quantitative data were collected from a proportionally selected sample of 334 teachers across 13 secondary schools using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire and a modified 24-item organizational citizenship behavior scale. This was followed by qualitative semi-structured interviews with seven purposively selected school principals to unpack contextual nuances. Quantitative data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and multiple linear regressions in SPSS20 software. RESULTS: Transformational leadership was the most frequently practiced style (M = 2.88, SD = 0.55), followed closely by transactional leadership (M = 2.82, SD = 0.51), while laissez-faire scored lowest (M = 2.44, SD = 0.72). Teachers exhibited moderate overall organizational citizenship behaviors (M = 3.32, SD = 0.77). Correlation analysis revealed that transformational (r = .69, p < .001) and transactional (r = .61, p < .001) styles had significant positive associations with extra-role behaviors, while laissez-faire showed a strong negative correlation (r = -.55, p < .001). Multiple regression confirmed the model explained 63.8% of the variance, with transformational leadership acting as the strongest positive predictor (β = .39, p < .001) and laissez-faire as a severe negative predictor (β = -.38, p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Active leadership styles are vital for fostering teachers' organizational citizenship behaviors in challenging, conflict-affected environments. Educational training frameworks must integrate transformational competencies to maximize institutional effectiveness.