Transformational leadership and its effect on teacher organizational commitment: The mediating effect of teachers’ self-efficacy

Abstract

This study aims to explore the impact of principal transformational leadership on teacher organizational commitment across regions and schools, using teacher self-efficacy as a mediating variable, to enhance principals' leadership wisdom and promote school change. A total of 320 questionnaires were distributed and 310 were returned (return rate of 96.8%). Finally, 308 valid questionnaires were obtained (effectiveness rate of 96.2%). AMOS 23.0 was used to construct a structural equation model with path coefficients, and the model fit and path effect were analyzed to explore the relationship between the three main variables. The results show that principal transformational leadership has a significant positive correlation with both teacher organizational commitment and teacher self-efficacy. Teacher self-efficacy has a significant positive correlation with teacher organizational commitment. Teacher self-efficacy has a mediating role. Transformational leadership primarily affects teachers' intrinsic motivation—self-efficacy—which in turn influences their level of organizational commitment.