The Predictive Effect of Teachers’ Perception of School Principals’ Motivating Language on Teachers’ Self-Efficacy via a Cultural Context

Emir Ozeren,Serdar Yener,Andrea Appolloni,Aykut Arslan

doi:10.3390/su12218830

Abstract

The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between teachers’ perception of school principals’ motivating language and teachers’ self-efficacy mediated by the cultural context. School principals’ linguistic communication skills are critical to sustain the motivation of teachers and their self-efficacy. Motivating language theory (MLT), on which this study is based, provides a model that helps us understand how the language, more precisely, the speech acts, used by school principals have an impact on teachers’ self-efficacy. A survey method was employed with 252 teachers through convenience sampling. The teachers’ mean age was 34.87 (SD = 9.22) years, and the average length of service was 11.72 (SD = 9.42) years. The results showed that school principals’ use of motivating language was significantly and positively associated with teachers’ self-efficacy (b = 0.10, p < 0.000). The low-context culture was found to have a full mediating effect in this relationship (b = 0.04, t = 3.1771, p < 0.000). The findings contribute to leader communication theory by highlighting a particular emphasis on the language school principals use to motivate teachers.

Highlights

In today’s world, communication is one of the most sought-after skills for those in managerial and leadership positions [1]
Despite the fact that a significant body of literature and discussion surrounding education for sustainable development exists, the language and linguistic communication skills school principals have to sustain the motivation of teachers and enhance their self-efficacy has received scant attention. We partially address this gap in the literature by clearly highlighting the aspects of motivational language use by school principals to enhance teachers’ self-efficacy in the light of cultural context
From a parallel multiple mediation analysis conducted using ordinary least squares path analysis, we tested if the motivating language (ML) of school principals indirectly influenced general self-efficacy of the teachers through their high and low context cultural values

Summary

Introduction

In today’s world, communication is one of the most sought-after skills for those in managerial and leadership positions [1]. Previous studies have shown that people in leadership roles spend about 80% of their day communicating in some form or another [2]. Within the area of educational leadership, school principals spend up to 84% of their time engaged in verbal leadership communication [4]. These rates will continue to increase due to current developments in communication technologies and the recent surge of interest in how leaders use communication as a tool to motivate their followers [5,6]. Leaders’ strategic use of verbal communication in motivating forms enhances followers’ satisfaction and sustainable performance [8] and significantly improves employee behaviours [1,9] and subordinates’

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