Do Emotionally Intelligent Leaders and Academically Optimistic Teachers Determine the Organisational Commitment of Malaysian Educators?
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Abstract
Emotionally intelligent leaders have been described as one of the major factors influencing various aspects of employees’ job performance in the organisation. This study investigated the influence of leaders’ emotional intelligence and teachers’ academic optimism on teachers’ organisational commitment in Malaysian secondary schools. Furthermore, the mediating effect of teachers’ academic optimism on the relationship between leaders’ emotional intelligence and teachers’ organisational commitment was also investigated. A total of 385 teachers were randomly selected from four states situated in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. Data for this survey was collected through a questionnaire which was adapted from literature review. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that leaders’ emotional intelligence and teachers’ academic optimism had a significant influence on teachers’ organisational commitment. Meanwhile, teachers’ academic optimism acted as a partial mediator on the relationship between leaders’ emotional intelligence and teachers’ organisational commitment. In terms of the implications, this study showed that the role of the emotionally intelligent leader is extremely important in enhancing teachers’ academic optimism in order to foster the organisational commitment of teachers in schools.
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Copyright: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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