Relationships Between Empowering Leadership, Supportive Work Environment and Organizational Commitment: Example of Guidance and Research Centers (GRC)

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the empowering leadership styles of the principals of Guidance and Research Centers, the organizational commitment of teachers, and the mediating role of the supportive work environment in this relationship. The sample consisted of 428 teachers working in the Guidance and Research Centers in Türkiye, and was determined according to the cluster sampling method. This study was conducted by using a correlational survey method. The data was collected and maintained using the School Principal Empowering Leadership Scale, Supportive Work Environment Perception Scale, and Organizational Commitment Scale in the 2021–2022 academic year. Regression analysis and path analysis relied on data to determine the direct predictors of empowering leadership and supportive work environment perception on teachers' organizational commitment, and the indirect predictors of empowering leadership through supportive work environment perception on their organizational commitment. We also calculated the correlation coefficients (r) to determine the relationships between variables. According to the results, empowering leadership is a positive and significant predictor of teachers' perceptions of a supportive work environment and organizational commitment. Likewise, teachers' perceptions of a supportive work environment significantly predicted their organizational commitment. Simultaneously, while empowering leadership alone explained 27% of the total variance in teachers' organizational commitment, the variance explained by including perceptions of a supportive work environment in the model was 37%. These results show that principals' empowering leadership behaviors that increase teachers' organizational commitment might affect their perceptions of a supportive work environment.