From confidence to impact: how school leaders’ self-efficacy moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational learning in K-12 schools

Purpose This study explores how the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational learning varies across schools and examines how school principals’ self-efficacy and their leadership performance, as perceived schoolwide by teachers, moderate this relationship. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on data from 1,080 teachers and 31 principals across K-12 schools in Hong Kong, the analysis employs a mixed-effects multilevel linear modeling approach to investigate these dynamics. Findings The findings reveal that four dimensions of transformational leadership – intellectual stimulation, idealized influence behavior, inspirational motivation and individual consideration – are positively associated with teachers’ perception of organizational learning, though their effects vary across schools. Intellectual stimulation emerges as particularly impactful, especially in schools where principals demonstrate higher self-efficacy and where teachers collectively perceive their principal’s effectiveness in this dimension as strong. Therefore, intellectual stimulation, when paired with a principal’s self-efficacy, becomes a powerful catalyst for organizational learning, but its impact is contingent on the schoolwide endorsement of the principal’s leadership effectiveness. This interplay underscores the complex nature of leadership effectiveness and leader self-efficacy. Originality/value These findings offer actionable insights for school leaders and policymakers, underscoring the moderating role of principal self-efficacy in tandem with their schoolwide perceived transformational leadership performance and cultivating supportive school environments to drive meaningful organizational improvement.