Leadership style, occupational perception and organizational citizenship behavior in the Arab education system in Israel

Abstract

PurposeThe field of educational systems has witnessed an increase in studies of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) as it contributes to the effectiveness and success of schools and achieving their objectives and goals. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between principals’ leadership style, occupational perceptions and OCB.Design/methodology/approachThe research hypothesis holds that the leadership style (transformational or transactional) have a direct and indirect effect on OCB (through occupation perception). These hypotheses have been tested on data collected from 620 Arab Israeli teachers.FindingsThe results reveal that: transformational and transactional leadership have no direct effect on OCB, an indirect effect of occupational perception on the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB, occupational perception did not mediate the effect between transactional leadership and OCB.Originality/valueThe results of the study contribute to the understanding of the way leadership style and OCB interact in schools, and the importance of teachers’ occupational perception in explaining this relationship. Future research should further investigate the teachers’ occupational perceptions and its effect on their performance as little research has been conducted to date.