Interplay of Principal Instructional Leadership, School Organizational Climate, and Teacher Job Satisfaction: Evidence from Secondary Schools in Northwest China

Han Guo, Bity Salwana Alias, Mohd Izwan Mamud

Abstract


Principal instructional leadership is crucial for improving educational quality, shaping school climate, and influencing teacher job satisfaction. However, empirical research on its impact in underdeveloped regions of Northwest China is limited, revealing a significant gap in understanding local educational dynamics. This study examined how principal instructional leadership shapes school organizational climate and influences teacher job satisfaction in secondary schools across northwest China. Using a survey of 366 teachers from 63 schools, structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the effects of instructional leadership on school climate and teacher satisfaction. The research revealed that principals' leadership behaviors, particularly in managing instructional programs and setting a clear school mission, played a pivotal role in creating a positive school climate and enhancing teacher satisfaction. A supportive and collegial environment was found to be especially critical in boosting teachers’ sense of fulfillment and professional well-being. The study offers actionable insights for educational leaders seeking to foster an environment that supports both teacher satisfaction and educational excellence, especially in underdeveloped regions.

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.24.4.9


Keywords


Education management; Instructional leadership; School organizational climate; Teacher job satisfaction; Secondary school

Full Text:

PDF

References


Ambon, J., Alias, B. S., & Mansor, A. N. (2025). A significant systematic review: impact of school head leadership competencies on teacher development. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 14(1), 114-123. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v14i1.31595

Amina Erkin. (2022). Research on strategies to improve the teaching leadership of primary school principals. Gansu Education Research, (02), 139–141. https://www.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?filename=JYGS202202024&dbcode=CJFD

Ariansyah, N. (2021). The relationship between instructional leadership and teacher commitment to organizational climate and teacher job satisfaction at TK Strawberry Banjarmasin Utara. Journal of K6 Education Management, 4(3), 319-330. https://doi.org/10.11594/jk6em.04.03.06

Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Pearson.

Dare, P. S., & Saleem, A. (2022). Toward success while tackling the change in a pandemic age: Path-goal theory leadership as a win-win gadget. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 944145. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.944145

Don, Y., Yaakob, M. F. M., WanHanafi, W. R., Yusof, M. R., Kasa, M. D., Omar-Fauzee, M. S., & In-Keeree, H. K. (2021). Challenges for using organizational climate tools for measuring teacher job satisfaction. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 10(2), 465-475. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v10i2.20703

Dou, D., Devos, G., & Valcke, M. (2017). The relationships between school autonomy gap, principal leadership, teachers’ job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 45(6), 959-977. https://doi.org/10.1177/17411432166539

Dutta, V., & Sahney, S. (2022). Relation of principal instructional leadership, school climate, teacher job performance, and student achievement. Journal of Educational Administration, 60(2), 148-166. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-01-2021-0010

Entong, Z., & Aziz, N. A. A. (2023).The relationship between principals’ instructional leadership and teachers’ efficacy in Xuzhou, China. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 13(10), 1727–1740. https://doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v13-i10/19068

Ghozali, I. (2014). Structural equation modeling: Alternative method with partial least square (PLS). Diponegoro University Publishing Agency.

Hair, J. F., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2011). PLS-SEM: Indeed a silver bullet. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 19(2), 139-152. https://doi.org/10.2753/MTP1069-6679190202

Hallinger, P., Gümü?, S., & Belliba?, M. ?. (2020). 'Are principals instructional leaders yet?' A science map of the knowledge base on instructional leadership, 1940–2018. Scientometrics, 122(3), 1629-1650. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03360-5

Harahap, M. E., & Suriansyah, A. (2019). Relationship of instructional leadership, organizational climate, and teacher’s commitment to job satisfaction. Journal of K6 Education Management, 2(4), 260-270. https://doi.org/10.11594/jk6em.02.04.01

Heinla, E., & Kuurme, T. (2024). The impact of school culture, school climate, and teachers’ job satisfaction on the teacher-student relationship: A case study in four Estonian schools. Research Papers in Education, 39(3), 439-465. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2022.2150883

House, R. J. (1971). A path goal theory of leader effectiveness. Administrative Science Quarterly, 16(3), 321–339. https://doi.org/10.2307/2391905

Hoy, W. K., Hoffman, J., Sabo, D., & Bliss, J. (1996). The organizational climate of middle schools: The development and test of the OCDQ?RM. Journal of Educational Administration, 34(1), 41–59. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578239610107156

Hu, H., & Mi, A. (2024). Localisation of content and language integrated learning in China: Tensions in teacher professional development. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2024.2380099

Ito, T., Umemoto, T., & Nakaya, M. (2024). Providing and receiving of autonomy support promotes self-efficacy and value for group activities in university and the workplace. International Journal of Educational Research Open, 7, 100339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2024.100339

Jentsch, A., Hoferichter, F., Blömeke, S., König, J., & Kaiser, G. (2023). Investigating teachers' job satisfaction, stress, and working environment: The roles of self?efficacy and school leadership. Psychology in the Schools, 60(3), 679-690. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.22788

Juhji, J., Syarifudin, E., Supardi, S., Paiman, P., Indriana, D., Sutanto, S., ... & Rahmawati, I. (2023). Exploring the relationship between teacher job satisfaction and professional development in urban schools during a pandemic. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE), 12(4), 1755-1763. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v12i4.24510

Kaya, K., Erdo?an, O., Ye?il, Y., & Sezgin, F. (2024). The roles of collective teacher efficacy and commitment in the relationship between Turkish language teachers’ job satisfaction and school principal distributed leadership. SAGE Open, 14(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241271136

Kouali, G. (2017). The instructional practice of school principals and its effect on teachers’ job satisfaction. International Journal of Educational Management, 31(7), 958-972. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-11-2016-0253

Krejcie, R. V., & Morgan, D. W. (1970). Determining sample size for research activities. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30(3), 607–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/00131644700300030

Kurnia, H., Purwanto, N., & Fitoriyati, I. (2021). The influence of the principal instructional leadership on teachers' job satisfaction at vocational secondary schools. Jurnal Pendidikan Vokasi, 11(2), 171–181. https://doi.org/10.21831/jpv.v11i2.42193

Lester, P. E. (1987). Development and factor analysis of the teacher job satisfaction questionnaire (TJSQ). Educational and Psychological Measurement, 47(1), 223-233. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164487471031

Levatino, A., Ferrer-Esteban, G., & Verger, A. (2024). Unveiling teachers’ work preferences: A conjoint experiment on the implications of school governance reform across three countries. Teaching and Teacher Education, 146, 104631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2024.104631

Licki, M. M. P., & Van Der Walt, F. (2021). The influence of perceived cultural intelligence of school principals on teachers' job satisfaction and trust. Management Dynamics: Journal of the Southern African Institute of Management Sciences, 30(2), 5–20. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-mandyn-v30-n2-a2

Lin, P., Courtney, S. J., Heffernan, A., & Armstrong, P. (2023). System leadership in China? Conceptualising “education collectives” as formal school partnerships through the dragon boat metaphor. International Journal of Educational Research, 122, 102268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2023.102268

Liu, J. (2024). China: A systematic approach to rural school improvement: Teachers, technologies and leadership. In Rural school improvement in developing countries (pp. 37–60). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-4917-1_2

Liu, S., & Hallinger, P. (2018). Teacher development in rural China: How ineffective school leadership fails to make a difference. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 21(6), 633-650. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2017.1294266

Liu, Y., Li, L., & Huang, C. (2022). To what extent is shared instructional leadership related to teacher self-efficacy and student academic performance in China? School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 33(3), 381-402. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2022.2029746

Liu, Y., Belliba?, M. ?., & Gümü?, S. (2021). The effect of instructional leadership and distributed leadership on teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction: Mediating roles of supportive school culture and teacher collaboration. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 49(3), 430-453. https://doi.org/10.1177/174114322091043

Liu, Y., Alias, B. S., & Hamid, A. H. A. (2025). Exploring Teacher Organizational Commitment for Promoting Sustainable Development in Higher Education: A Systematic Literature Review and Analysis of Theories and Methodologies in Chinese Studies. Journal of Ecohumanisim, 4(1), 544-549. https://doi.org/10.62754/joe.v4i1.5836

Madhakomala, S., & Hanafi, I. (2021). Productive teacher job satisfaction: Disentangling organizational climate, facility management, and organizational citizenship behavior. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 10(4), 1352-1358. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v10i4.21299

Meredith, C., Moolenaar, N., Struyve, C., Vandecandelaere, M., Gielen, S., & Kyndt, E. (2023). The importance of a collaborative culture for teachers’ job satisfaction and affective commitment. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 38(1), 43-62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-022-00598-w

Nabella, S. D., Rivaldo, Y., Kurniawan, R., Nurmayunita, N., Sari, D. P., Luran, M. F., ... & Sova, M. (2022). The influence of leadership and organizational culture mediated by organizational climate on governance at senior high school in Batam City. Journal of Educational and Social Research, 12(5), 119-130. https://doi.org/10.36941/jesr-2022-0127

Nguyen, A. J., McDaniel, H., Braun, S. S., Chen, L., & Bradshaw, C. P. (2021). Contextualizing the association between school climate and student well?being: The moderating role of rurality. Journal of School Health, 91(6), 463–472. https://doi.org/10.1111/josh.13026

Nguyen, H. T., Vu, N. T. T., Ha, X. V., Dinh, H. V. T., Truong, T. D., & Reynolds, B. L. (2023). Principal instructional leadership and its influence on teachers’ professional development at Vietnamese primary schools. Education 3–13, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2023.2195409

Noori, A. Q., Said, H., Orfan, S. N., & Anis, S. N. M. (2024). The influence of school climate on high school teachers’ job satisfaction in a conflict-affected country. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 13(1), 321-328. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v13i1.22890

Otr?bski, W. (2022). The correlation between organizational (school) climate and teacher job satisfaction—the type of educational institution moderating role. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(11), Article 6520. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116520

Purwanto, A., & Sulaiman, A. (2023). The role of transformational and transactional leadership on job satisfaction of millennial teachers: A CB-SEM AMOS analysis. Universal Journal of Science and Technology, 2(2), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.11111/ujost.v2i2.114

Rezaee, A., Khoshsima, H., Zare-Behtash, E., & Sarani, A. (2020). English teachers’ job satisfaction: Assessing contributions of the Iranian school organizational climate in a mixed methods study. Cogent Education, 7(1), 1613007. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2019.1613007

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.

Shengnan, S., & Hallinger, P. (2021). Unpacking the effects of culture on school leadership and teacher learning in China. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 49(2), 214-233. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143219896042

Thien, L. M., Lim, S. Y., & Adams, D. (2024). The evolving dynamics between instructional leadership, collective teacher efficacy, and dimensions of teacher commitment: What can Chinese independent high schools tell us? International Journal of Leadership in Education, 27(4), 739-761. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2021.1913236

Tiippana, N., Korhonen, T., & Hakkarainen, K. (2024). Teachers’ external networking: Expanding pedagogical practices in Finland. The Teacher Educator, 59(4), 480–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/08878730.2024.2341379

Toropova, A., Myrberg, E., & Johansson, S. (2021). Teacher job satisfaction: The importance of school working conditions and teacher characteristics. Educational Review, 73(1), 71-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2019.1705247

Walab, J. A., Mansor, A. Z., Hussin, M., & Kumarasamy, S. (2020). Headmasters' instructional leadership and its relationship with teachers performance. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(11A), 97-102. https://doi.org 10.13189/ujer.2020.082112

Walker, A., & Qian, H. (2022). Developing a model of instructional leadership in China. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 52(1), 147-167. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2020.1747396

Wang, H., Cousineau, C., Wang, B., Zeng, L., Sun, A., Kohrman, E., Medina, A., Loyalka, P., & Rozelle, S. (2022). Exploring teacher job satisfaction in rural China: Prevalence and correlates. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(6), 3537. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063537

Wang, J. (2020). The impact of principals' instructional leadership on teachers' professional learning community (Master’s thesis, Qufu Normal University, Shandong Province, China). China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?dbname=CMFD202101&filename=1020120335.nh

Wang, Q. (2020). Research on strategies for improving the instructional leadership of primary school principals (Master’s thesis, Ningxia University, Yinchuan City, China). China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?dbname=CMFD202201&filename=1020140251.nh

Wang, S. (2023). The impact of occupational stress on the professional mentality of junior high school teachers (Master’s thesis, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei). China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?dbname=CMFD202402&filename=1023923347.nh

Wei, G., Lu, J., & Qian, H. (2018). Principal instructional leadership: Chinese PIMRS development and validation. Chinese Education and Society, 51(5), 337-358. https://doi.org/10.1080/10611932.2018.1510688

Xiao, T. (2021). Research on the relationship between organizational management atmosphere and teacher job satisfaction in secondary vocational schools (Master’s thesis, Shihezi University, Xinjiang, China). China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?dbname=CMFD202201&filename=1021838963.nh

Xiang, Y., & Alias, B. S. (2025). Principal instructional leadership practice and its relationship with teacher job performance. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 14(2), 1097-1104. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijere.v14i2.31127

Xin, Z., & Tahir, S. B. (2024). Ensuring teacher’s job satisfaction through distributed and instructional leadership of Chinese school principals: Mediating role of reward, motivation, and effectiveness. South Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 5(1), 238-264. https://doi.org/10.48165/sajssh.2024.5114

Yang, L. (2022). A study on the job satisfaction of grassroots teachers (Master’s thesis, Ningxia University, Yinchuan city, China). China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). https://kns.cnki.net/KCMS/detail/detail.aspx?dbname=CMFD202301&filename=1022060276.nh

Yu, M., & Liu, J. (2020). Research on the satisfaction of teachers in compulsory education: Based on the perspective of teacher questionnaire survey in 7 counties (districts) of N Province. Journal of Ningxia University (Humanities Social Science Edition), (06), 180-186. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1001-5744.2020.06.032

Zakariya, Y. F., Bjørkestøl, K., & Nilsen, H. K. (2020). Teacher job satisfaction across 38 countries and economies: An alignment optimization approach to a cross-cultural mean comparison. International Journal of Educational Research, 101, 101573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2020.101573

Zhai, J., & Wang, C. (2021). Characteristics and enlightenment of Shanghai junior high school atmosphere from an international comparative perspective: An analysis based on TALIS 2018 data. Journal of Comparative Education, (06), 72-87. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.2096-7810.2021.06.006

Zhan, Q., Wang, X., & Song, H. (2023). The relationship between principals’ instructional leadership and teacher retention in the undeveloped regions of Central and Western China: The chain-mediating role of role stress and affective commitment. Behavioral Sciences, 13(9), 738. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13090738

Zhang, J., Huang, Q., & Xu, J. (2022). The relationships among transformational leadership, professional learning communities and teachers’ job satisfaction in China: What do the principals think? Sustainability, 14(4), 2362. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14042362

Zhang, Q., Meng, Q., & Yang, H. (2022). View the reform direction of higher education evaluation from the importance of education evaluation to the cultivation of innovative talents. In Proceedings of the 2022 International Conference on Creative Industry and Knowledge Economy (CIKE 2022) (pp. 419-422). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/aebmr.k.220404.080

Zhang, X., & Nirantranon, W. (2023). Construction of an evaluation index system for the implementation of the new curriculum standards (2022 edition) of physical education and health curriculum for middle schools in Guangdong Province. International Journal of Sociologies and Anthropology Science Review, 3(5), 45-60. https://doi.org/10.60027/ijsasr.2023.3249

Zebon, M. A. H., Sattar, A., & Ahamed, M. S. (2025). An empirical study of exploring the predictors of university teachers’ job satisfaction in Bangladesh: A structural equation modeling approach. Heliyon, 11(2), e41740. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e41740


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


e-ISSN: 1694-2116

p-ISSN: 1694-2493