Personality, Work Motivation and Soft Skills in Service Quality: A Comparative Study of Government and Private Secondary School Teachers

Abstract

Secondary schools function as service organizations in which teachers play a central role in delivering educational and interpersonal services to students and parents. However, limited empirical research has examined how teachers' personality traits and work motivation are associated with the soft skills that contribute to service quality in the school context. The present study examines the relationship between Big Five personality traits, work motivation, soft skill deployment, and service quality orientation among secondary school teachers, with particular attention to differences between government and private schools. A quantitative, cross-sectional, comparative correlational design was adopted with a sample of 150 secondary school teachers from government and private schools in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Data were collected using the Five Personality Trait Inventory (FPTI), Work Motivation Questionnaire (WMQ-A), a four-dimension Soft Skills Inventory, and a SERVQUAL-adapted measure of service quality orientation. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, independent-samples t-test, and hierarchical multiple regression were used to examine the proposed relationships. School ownership type was considered as a key comparative variable, while gender and teaching experience were examined as additional explanatory variables. The study contributes to the growing literature connecting teacher psychology, soft skills, and education service quality and provides practical implications for teacher development and institutional improvement.