The influence of transformational leadership and teachers’ trust in principals on teachers’ working commitment

Abstract The responsibilities of teachers and principals in Government Funded Religious Schools (GFRS) in Malaysia have become more demanding as the enrolment rates have risen over time. The principals’ transformational leadership (TL) potentially affects teachers’ trust (TT), which directly influences their work commitment (WC) in school. However, limited evidence is available to support this assertion. Thus, this study seeks to investigate: (a) the level of TL, TT, and WC and (b) the influence of TT as a mediator between TL and WC from the teachers’ perspective in the Government Funded Religious Schools (GFRS) in Selangor. This study employed a survey research design. A survey questionnaire was administered to 297 GFRS teachers in Selangor. These teachers were selected using a stratified random sampling technique. Descriptive (means, standard deviation, frequency, and percentage) and inferential statistics (analysis of regression and predictive accuracy) were employed to analyse the data. The findings suggested that the overall level TL ( M = 4.077, SD = 0.533), TT ( M = 4.070, SD = 0.521) and WC ( M = 4.188, SD = 0.413) in GFRS in Selangor were ‘high’. It was also found that TL was a significant predictor of TT ( B = 0.867, SE = 0.026, p 0.05), suggesting that TT did not mediate the relationship between TL and WC. Even though this study exemplified that the level of TL, TT and WC was at a high level, TT was found to have an insignificant effect on WC. This provides a new insight in understanding this complex relationship. The dynamic of relationships—among teachers, between teachers and staff, and with outside parties, might have an impact on developing TT and WC among these teachers.