Lee, Ai Noi

This thesis presents a current research which attempted to address the main research question: What are the predictive relationships among teachers’ perceptions of principal’s and immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours, teachers’ psychological empowerment and teachers’ work-related outcomes in terms of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and professional commitment? The current research comprised four separated but related empirical studies. The research sample consisted of 304 teachers in Singapore.

Study 1 developed and validated the School Leader Empowering Behaviours (SLEB) scale. 304 teachers were randomly split into two sub-samples. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted using sub-sample 1 (N=142) to determine the number of factors and select the items. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted using subsample 2 (N=162) for cross-validation to confirm the factorial structure of the scale and examine the model-data fit. Results from both EFA and CFA provided support for a seven-factor SLEB scale with three items for each sub-scale. The seven factors could be further collapsed into a higher-order factor. Each sub-scale of the SLEB showed good internal consistency reliability and predictive validity.

Study 2 examined whether teachers’ perceptions of principal’s and immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours would differ significantly on each of the seven dimensions and the composite score of the School Leader Empowering Behaviours (SLEB) scale. Results from paired sample t-tests indicated that teachers generally perceived their respective principals to have engaged in fostering collaborative relationships and articulating a vision more frequently than their respective immediate supervisors. Teachers also perceived their respective immediate supervisors to have engaged in delegating authority and providing individualised concern and support more frequently than their respective principals. There were no significant differences between teachers’ perceptions of principal’s and immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours in terms of their composite scores and three dimensions of the SLEB scale: providing intellectual stimulation, providing role-modelling, and providing acknowledgement and recognition.

Study 3 examined the relationships among teachers’ perceptions of principal’s and immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours, the four dimensions of teachers’ psychological empowerment (i.e. teachers’ sense of meaning, competence, autonomy, and impact) and teachers’ work-related outcomes. The study was guided by a theoretical framework which integrated the social structural and psychological perspectives of empowerment and conceptualised teacher empowerment as an integrated process. Using path analysis, results indicated that the four dimensions of teachers’ psychological empowerment had differential relations with teachers’ perceptions of principal’s and immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours as well as teachers’ work-related outcomes in terms of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and professional commitment. Results indicated that the four dimensions of teachers’ psychological empowerment mediated the relationships between teachers’ perceptions of immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours and the three teachers’ work-related outcomes. However, only teachers’ sense of meaning, autonomy and impact, but not competence, mediated the relationships between teachers’ perceptions of principal’s empowering behaviours and the three teachers’ work-related outcomes.

Study 4 examined the joint relationship between teachers’ perceptions of principal’s and immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours in predicting the four dimensions of teachers’ psychological empowerment (i.e. teachers’ sense of meaning, competence, autonomy, and impact). Results from moderated path analysis and simple slope tests indicated that there was an interactive relationship between teachers’ perceptions of principal’s and immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours in predicting three out of four dimensions of teachers’ psychological empowerment, in terms of teachers’ sense of meaning, competence and autonomy, but not impact. Results also indicated that different moderating mechanisms (i.e. enhancing and substituting) underscored the interactive relationship between teachers’ perceptions of principal’s and immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours in predicting teachers’ sense of meaning, competence and autonomy. Whereas, an additive relationship was found between teachers’ perceptions of principal’s and immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours in predicting teachers’ sense of impact. Teachers’ perceptions of principal’s empowering behaviours accounted for more significant unique variance than teachers’ perceptions of immediate supervisor’s empowering behaviours in predicting teachers’ sense of impact.

Overall, this thesis extends on previous works of teacher empowerment by taking into consideration both social structural and psychological perspectives of empowerment in conceptualising teacher empowerment as an integrated process. This thesis could contribute significantly to teacher empowerment research as well as provide evidence-based support for the practice of teacher empowerment.