The dual-level effects of authentic leadership on teacher wellbeing: the mediating role of psychological availability
ISSN: 0048-3486
Article publication date: 15 June 2023
Issue publication date: 28 May 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examined the mediating role of psychological availability in the relationships between principals' individual-level and group-level authentic leadership and individual teachers' wellbeing, that is, job satisfaction, life satisfaction and emotional exhaustion.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a three-wave online questionnaire survey among 266 teachers from 52 schools in China. Multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) was used to analyze the hypothesized relationships among the study variables.
Findings
The principals' group-level and individual-level authentic leadership were both positively associated with individual teachers' psychological availability, which in turn was positively related to their job satisfaction and life satisfaction, and negatively related to their emotional exhaustion.
Practical implications
School administrations should elevate the levels of principals' authentic leadership by selecting and developing authentic principals to increase teacher wellbeing.
Originality/value
Differing from prior research that has focused on the effect of authentic leadership at either group-level or individual-level, this study simultaneously investigated the dual-level effects of principals' authentic leadership. Moreover, psychological availability was found to mediate the dual-level effects of principals' authentic leadership on teachers' job satisfaction, life satisfaction and emotional exhaustion.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by The Project for the Guangdong Provincial Education Science 13th Five-year Plan (2018GXJK101) and The Lingnan Normal University Special Project for Talents (ZW1803).
Citation
Xu, Z. and Yang, F. (2024), "The dual-level effects of authentic leadership on teacher wellbeing: the mediating role of psychological availability", Personnel Review, Vol. 53 No. 4, pp. 929-943. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-11-2021-0792
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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