Yihenew Belay, Mateb Tafere
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.