The Relationship Between Principals’ Paternalistic Leadership And Teachers’ Work Engagement

The relationship between principals and teachers manifests itself as both a rational working relationship and an emotional connection.In schools that are like extended families,our principals often display a paternalistic style of leadership that is typical of Chinese culture.The headmasters take a holistic care of the teachers’ lives,while setting high standards and strict demands on them,and at the same time focusing on establishing themselves as role models and building an emotional family-like relationship with them.In the face of teacher burnout and declining well-being,it is important to consider how headmasters can achieve emotional governance through paternalistic leadership to promote teachers’ full engagement and enjoyment of teaching.This study therefore examines whether and how paternalistic leadership by headmasters can influence teachers’ engagement in their work,based on middle and high schools in Shanghai,China.Based on paternalistic leadership theory,attribution needs theory and job demands-resources model,this study synthesized the relevant literature and implemented quantitative and qualitative research sequentially using an explanatory sequence design in a mixed research approach.Firstly,387 valid questionnaires were collected from middle and high school teachers in Shanghai,and the data were subjected to descriptive statistics,tests of variance,correlation analysis,regression analysis,structural equation modelling and mediating effect tests with the help of SPSS23 and Amos 26 software.Then,based on the results of the quantitative study,15 teachers with different characteristics in the sample were selected for interviews as an interpretation and reflection of the data results.The study found that some of the dimensions of paternalistic leadership by headmasters were able to influence teachers’ work engagement and that teachers’ sense of belonging to the school played a mediating role.Specifically:(1)The headmaster’s paternalistic leadership was mainly characterized by moral,discipline-focused authoritarian and benevolent leadership.(2)Teachers’ overall work engagement and sense of belonging to the school was high,but their emotional engagement in teaching was slightly less.(3)The headmaster’s moral and discipline-focused authoritarian leadership had a significant positive overall effect on teachers’ work engagement.(4)Teachers’ sense of school belonging mediated significantly between headmasters’ dominance-focused authoritarian,benevolent,moral leadership,and teachers’ work engagement.Based on the results of the analysis,this study further summarized and discussed the application of paternalistic leadership theory in schools,the interpretation of influence mechanisms based on Chinese culture and the emphasis on teachers’ emotions at work.On this basis,grounded in school management practices,this study considered the differentiation between discipline-focused authoritarian leadership and dominancefocused authoritarian leadership,the feasibility of enhancing teachers’ sense of school belonging and the specificity of different groups of teachers’ perceptions.Finally,the limitations of this study were reflected upon.It was pointed out that future research should further increase the sample size,refine models that include other mediating and moderating variables,and combine qualitative research methods to develop existing theories of paternalistic leadership.