Authentic leadership and teachers’ voice behaviour: The mediating role of psychological empowerment and moderating role of interpersonal trust

Abstract

Teachers’ voice behaviour plays a critical role in school reform by providing constructive suggestions to promote teaching, students’ learning and school management. This study investigates how and under what conditions principals’ authentic leadership contributes to teachers’ voice behaviour. Data collected from 982 teachers in 38 primary schools in mainland China were analysed using regression analysis and bootstrapping tests. The research tested a moderated mediation model of authentic leadership effects on teachers’ voice behaviour in which teacher psychological empowerment was included as the mediator and interpersonal trust as the moderator. The results affirmed the partial mediation model, finding significant direct and indirect effects of principals’ authentic leadership on teachers’ voice behaviour. Moreover, interpersonal trust positively moderated the relationship between psychological empowerment and teachers’ voice behaviour, and also strengthened the whole mediating mechanism. When teachers perceived a higher level of interpersonal trust, the effects of principals’ authentic leadership on teachers’ voice behaviour were stronger than for counterparts who perceived a low level of interpersonal trust. Our discussion highlights the benefits of understanding the impact of authentic leadership on teachers’ voice behaviour in relation to interpersonal trust and their psychological empowerment and indicates how teachers can play a role in implementing the perceived situation practically.