Chuxuan Yin

Year of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

International Educational Leadership

Department or School/College

Phyllis J. Washington College of Education

Committee Chair

Liqin Tang

Commitee Members

John Matt, William P. McCaw, Erica Allen, Mike Perry

Abstract

This non-experimental causal-comparative study was designed to explore the relationship between principals’ transformational leadership and teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior within public primary and middle schools in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China, as well as the differences in principals’ transformational leadership and teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior based on demographic characteristics. A sample of 142 principals and 675 teachers was recruited. Data collection utilized two validated instruments: the Transformational Leadership Questionnaire for evaluating principals’ transformational leadership level, and the Organizational Citizenship Behavior Scale for Primary and Middle School Teachers for measuring teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior level. Both descriptive statistics (frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, etc.) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and multiple regression) were used to answer 12 research questions.

Results showed that principals’ level of transformational leadership and teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior had a statistically significant positive correlation. The overall score of principals’ transformational leadership was a statistically significant predictor for the total score of teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior. For demographic differences, gender, educational background, and teacher type showed no significant difference in teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior. However, teaching experience and students’ grade level were significantly associated with organizational citizenship behavior.

The researcher helped to deeply explore the dimensions and relationship between transformational leadership and teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior, and provided empirical support for the application of theory in educational settings, broadening its practical scope and boundaries. At the practical level, findings in this study revealed the situation and influencing factors of organizational citizenship behavior among primary and middle school teachers in China. The findings may help principals and school administrators understand the current state of teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior and enabled them to recognize how leadership styles influence this behavior. With this understanding, principals and administrators can take appropriate measures to enhance their leadership effectiveness, which, in turn, can foster teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior. To advance the understanding of transformational leadership’s impact on teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior, future research should adopt multidimensional and context-sensitive approaches.

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