Perception of School Climate as a Mediating Factor in Relation between Teacher Motivation and the Perceived School Principal Leadership Style

Abstract

This paper presents the results obtained on a sample of 467 teachers from 25 elementary schools in the wider city area of Tuzla. The subject of the research was the relationship between the principal leadership styles, as perceived by teachers, and the work motivation of teachers, through the perception of the school climate as a potential determinant of this relationship. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), the Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers (WTMST), and the School Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ) were used to collect data. The obtained results indicate that the principal leadership style, perceived by teachers, affects teacher motivation directly, and indirectly, through the teachers’ perception of the school climate. This, however, explains a small part of the total variance of motivation, which suggests that motivation is mostly determined by the sum of other factors.