Leadership style and teacher performance: mediating role of occupational perception

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a model in which leadership styles (transformational or transactional leadership) directly and indirectly (through occupation perception) affect teacher performance (in-role performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)). Design/methodology/approach The research hypothesis holds that the leadership style (transformational or transactional) has a direct and indirect effect on teacher performance (through occupation perception). These hypotheses have been tested on data collected from 630 Arab Israeli teachers. Findings Teachers’ in-role performance increases as they perceive their principals’ leadership style as more transformational and less transactional. In addition, the results reveal that the effect of transformational principals’ leadership style on OCB is expressed only by indirect effect (through occupational perception). Originality/value The results of the study contribute to the understanding of the way leadership style and performance 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.