In the context of school management, effective leadership plays a pivotal role in the enhancement of teacher job performance. However, within the context of China's unique educational governance system and Confucian culture, there has been a limited focus on the impact of transformational leadership on teacher job performance. This study is grounded in the reciprocal nature of social exchange theory and investigates the impact of principals' transformational leadership as perceived by teachers on specific performance in elementary education. Through collecting questionnaires from 453 teachers and using SEM. The results revealed that principals’ transformational leadership significantly enhanced teacher job performance and had significant impacts on TP, CP and AP. Moreover, teachers’ gender does not moderate the overall model of teacher job performance, but notably, Female teachers are more sensitive in making adaptive responses than male teachers. Therefore, findings suggest that under the challenges of China's educational modernisation and reform initiatives for educators, transformational behaviours represent crucial factors in stimulating adaptive performance among teachers. There is also a clear implication for leaders who are responsible for reforms to adopt management practices that are aligned with adaptive trends. This will support teachers of all different genders in transforming their self-perceived roles within an evolving system.
Wang et al. (2025) studied this question.