Distributive Leadership and Work Commitment among Secondary School Leaders: Initial Evidence from Malaysia

Abstract

Ministry of Education Malaysia is improving the quality of education by emphasising on quality of teacher’s leadership and their commitment. The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between distributive leadership practices and work commitments among the school leaders in Malaysia. In addition, the levels of distributive leadership practices and the level of work commitment among the school leaders was also studied. This study was carried out using a quantitative cross-sectional survey method using questionnaire as a research instrument of data collection. A total of 120 school leaders comprising principals, senior assistant teachers, assistant teachers and committee leaders were involved as respondents of this study. Two types of measuring tools used in this study were the Distributed Leadership Inventory (DLI) and the Teachers' Organizational Commitment Scale. The findings showed that there is a strong positive relationship between distributive leadership practice and work commitment. The findings also showed that the level of leadership of distributive leadership and work commitment are at high level. The findings also showed that there is no significant difference in distributive leadership practices and the level of commitment of school leaders based on gender factors. However there is a significant difference based on age and teaching experience. Thus, distributive leadership is critical to school leadership towards achieving the objectives of the Malaysian education as outlined in the Malaysian Education Blueprint (2013-2025).