The purpose of this study is threefold: (a) identify the leadership practices of educational leaders at community colleges as rated by full-time and part-time faculty members and by using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire form 5x; (b) explore the relationship between the educational leaders’ perceived leadership styles and the job satisfaction levels of full-time and part-time faculty members as measured by Paul Spector’s Job Satisfaction Survey; (c) examine gender, educational level, years of teaching experience and employment status differences, if any, with regards to the total score of job satisfaction for full-time and part-time faculty.

This study's sample of full-time and part-time faculty was obtained from three community colleges in Southern California. Three survey instruments were utilized for this study: a demographic survey, the MLQ-5x, and the JSS. The surveys were administered to all the full-time and part-time faculty members in three selected colleges. A total of 131 respondents participated in this study.

Faculty members who worked for a transformational leader as well as a leader whose score were high on contingent reward (a subscale for transactional leadership style) had a higher correlation with their satisfaction with pay, promotion, supervision, contingent rewards, coworkers, and communication.

There were no significant differences in the overall satisfaction between full-time and part-time faculty members, nor between male and female faculty. Likewise, years of teaching experience was not related to any differences in the total satisfaction scores. However, faculty with a doctorate degree scored significantly lower than their counterparts on the overall satisfaction score.

When considering the subscales for each leadership style, the highest overall satisfaction was reported for faculty members who work for a leader whose score was high on Individual Consideration, followed by Idealized Influence (Attribute) and Contingent Reward, and then by Inspirational Motivation. The lowest satisfaction was reported for faculty who worked for a leader who scored high on the subscale Management by Exception (Active).

These findings suggest that faculty members who work for a transformational leader had higher levels of job satisfaction than those who worked for a transactional leader, with the exception of transformational leaders who scored high on the transactional subscale of Contingent Rewards.