Digital Leadership and Its Relationship to the Quality of Career Life of Teachers in Government Schools in the Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

The present research aims to identify the degree to which school principals practice digital leadership and to examine its relationship with the quality of work life among teachers in public schools in the Sultanate of Oman in terms of gender, academic qualification, years of experience, and educational governorate. To achieve these objectives, a correlational descriptive methodology was adopted. A questionnaire consisting of 66 items was developed, distributed into two domains: the digital leadership domain 36 items and the quality of work life domain 30 items. After verifying the instrument’s validity and reliability, it was administered to a sample of 406 male and female teachers working in public schools across the governorates of Muscat, Al-Dhahirah, and Al-Dakhiliyah in the Sultanate of Oman. The findings revealed that the degree of digital leadership practice among public-school principals in Oman, from the teachers’ perspective, was generally high overall domains. The ranking of the dimensions, according to the highest mean scores, was as follows: knowledge management, followed by digital citizenship, innovation, persuasion, risk-taking, and finally decision-making. The results further indicated that teachers’ perceived level of quality of work life in public schools was also generally high. The dimensions were ranked according to the highest mean scores as follows: human relations, leadership style, job satisfaction, and organizational work environment, each at a high level, while the compensation and incentives dimension scored at a moderate level. The research concludes that there is a statistically significant positive correlation between all dimensions of digital leadership and all dimensions of quality of work life, with correlation strengths ranging from weak to moderate.