Paternalistic Leadership Behavior and Professional Learning Communities: The Mediating Role of Interpersonal Trust

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 1:45 pm
  In Roundtable Session: How Teachers Experience and Perceive Principal Leadership

Abstract

Based on professional capital theory and conservation of resources theory, this study explored the relationship between principals’ paternalistic leadership behavior, interpersonal trust, and professional learning communities, with samples of 1,077 teachers from 37 primary and high schools in Hebei and Shanxi provinces. The results showed that moral and benevolent leadership significantly and positively predicted professional learning communities, while authoritarian leadership had no significant effect. Teachers’ trust in colleagues mediated the relationship between moral, benevolent and authoritarian leadership and professional learning communities, while the mediating effect of trust in principals was not significant, indicating that the mediating mechanisms through which different leadership behaviors affect professional learning communities vary.

Authors

• Mengxing Zhu, Beijing Normal University

• Yonghong Cai, Beijing Normal University

• Runjia Tang, Capital Normal University

• Yun Qu, Beihang University

• Yutian Liu, Beijing Normal University