Authentic Leadership and Teachers’ Intention to Stay: The Mediating Role of Perceived Organizational Support and Psychological Capital

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the mediation effect of psychological capital and perceived organizational support on therelationship between authentic leadership and intention to stay. The structural equation modeling technique was usedto test the hypothesized model. A survey was administered to collect data targeting a sample of randomly selectedteachers working at high schools in Tehran. The results suggest that authentic leadership significantly influencesteachers’ intention to stay, psychological capital, perceived organizational support. As predicted, both perceivedorganizational support and psychological capital had a significant positive direct effect on intention to stay. Theeffect of authentic leadership on intention to stay was found to be mediated by teachers’ psychological capital andperceived organizational support. This study shows how leaders can enhance teachers’ intention to stay by applyingauthentic leadership, engendering psychological capital and creating supportive environment.