THE MEDIATING ROLE OF LOCAL WISDOM-BASED SCHOOL CULTURE IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRINCIPAL TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND TEACHER ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT

Abstract

Teacher organizational commitment cannot be explained solely through direct leadership behavior because the influence of leadership may depend on how leadership values are translated into shared norms and institutionalized through school culture. This study examines the relationships among Principal Transformational Leadership (PTL), Local Wisdom-Based School Culture (LWSBC), and Teacher Organizational Commitment (TOC). The study employed a quantitative explanatory cross-sectional design using Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). Data were collected from 280 teachers at junior and senior high schools (SMP and SMA) in Kabupaten Bekasi, Indonesia. The findings indicate that transformational leadership has a substantial positive relationship with local wisdom-based school culture (β = 0.514, p < 0.001) and a significant positive relationship with teacher organizational commitment (β = 0.284, p < 0.001). LWSBC also has a significant positive relationship with teacher organizational commitment (β = 0.306, p < 0.001). PTL demonstrates a significant indirect relationship with TOC through LWSBC (β = 0.158, 95% CI [0.096, 0.227]), while the direct relationship remains significant, indicating partial mediation. The model explains 26.5% of the variance in LWSBC and 26.4% of the variance in TOC. The study contributes to transformational leadership research by positioning local wisdom-based school culture as an organizational mechanism through which leadership orientation can be internalized in everyday school life.