Educational Leadership and Teacher Commitment: The Mediating Roles of Organizational Culture and Job Satisfaction, with Teacher Engagement as a Moderator

Abstract

This study tried to investigate the relationship between educational leadership and teacher commitment, organizational culture as a mediating variable, teacher job satisfaction as a mediating variable, and teacher engagement as a moderating variable. The research design was quantitative, cross sectional and data were gathered from the school teachers from public and private educational institutions to which questionnaires were given with structured self-administered questionnaire method. The educational leadership was measured with a validated leadership scale and teacher commitment, organizational culture, job satisfaction and teacher engagement were assessed with previously validated multi-item Likert scale instruments. A stratification sampling technique was used to sample teachers from diverse types of educational institutions. Then, the proposed model was tested by Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) after screening the data for missing value and data outlier. The evaluation of the measurement model was conducted using factor loading, Cronbach's alpha, composite reliability, average variance extracted, discriminant validity, and model fit indices, whereas the evaluation of the structural model aimed to examine the direct effect of educational leadership on teacher commitment, the indirect effects mediated by organizational culture and job satisfaction, and the moderating effect of teacher engagement. The significance of the mediation and moderation effects was tested using the bootstrapping approach with 5,000 resample size. The results showed that educational leadership had a significant positive direct effect on organizational culture, job satisfaction and teacher commitment while the relationship between organizational culture and job satisfaction and between educational leadership and teacher commitment was partially mediated. The influence of leadership on organizational culture and teacher commitment was significantly moderated by teachers' engagement, and increased as teachers' engagement increased. Finally, the pattern of results did not differ significantly when teacher age, teacher experience, and school type were included as control variables. The results contribute to the educational leadership literature by incorporating two mediating processes and a moderating boundary condition, and provide practical suggestions for enhancing teacher commitment via leadership development and human resource practices that engage staff.