Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
This study investigates the relationship between transformational leadership (TL) and organizational commitment (OC) among primary school teachers in Oman, with innovation-oriented organizational culture (IOC) examined as both a direct predictor and a moderating variable. Drawing on transformational leadership theory and social exchange theory, the study proposes a structural model tested using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with data collected from 368 teachers. The results reveal a complex relationship between leadership, culture, and commitment. Transformational leadership demonstrates a significant positive effect on innovation-oriented organizational culture, indicating its role in shaping supportive and innovative school environments. However, contrary to theoretical expectations, transformational leadership exhibits a negative direct effect on organizational commitment, suggesting that leadership behaviors do not directly translate into increased teacher commitment within this context. In contrast, innovation-oriented organizational culture emerges as the strongest predictor of organizational commitment, highlighting the central role of organizational environment in shaping teachers’ psychological attachment to their schools. Furthermore, the moderating effect of innovation-oriented organizational culture on the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment is not supported, indicating that leadership and culture function as independent rather than interactive predictors in this setting. Overall, the findings support a culture-dominant explanatory model of organizational commitment, where transformational leadership influences commitment indirectly through cultural development rather than direct attitudinal pathways. These results contribute to leadership and organizational behavior literature by challenging the universality of transformational leadership effects and emphasizing the critical role of organizational culture in shaping employee commitment in centralized educational systems.
Alshuhumi et al. (Fri,) studied this question.