The Influence of Transformational Leadership and Self-Efficacy on Work Effectiveness through Work Commitment: A Study of Vocational High School Teachers in Kapuas Regency

Abstract

Teacher work effectiveness is essential to the quality of vocational education, yet limited evidence explains how organizational and individual factors jointly relate to teacher effectiveness through work commitment. This study examined the relationships of principals’ transformational leadership and teachers’ self-efficacy with teacher work effectiveness, with work commitment as a mediating variable among public vocational high school teachers in Kapuas Regency, Indonesia. A quantitative correlational design with path analysis was employed. From a population of 295 teachers across 13 public vocational high schools, 170 respondents were selected using proportionate stratified random sampling. Data were collected using validated and reliable questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics and regression-based path analysis. The results showed significant positive relationships between transformational leadership and teacher work effectiveness (t = 2.579, p = .011), transformational leadership and work commitment (t = 12.261, p < .001), self-efficacy and teacher work effectiveness (t = 2.239, p = .026), self-efficacy and work commitment (t = 6.807, p < .001), and work commitment and teacher work effectiveness (t = 12.865, p < .001). The estimated indirect effects on teacher work effectiveness through work commitment were .483 for transformational leadership and .327 for self-efficacy. These findings suggest that work commitment is an important mechanism linking leadership and teachers’ psychological resources with work effectiveness. The study supports an integrated leadership–self-efficacy–commitment model and highlights the importance of simultaneously strengthening transformational leadership, teacher efficacy, and organizational commitment in vocational schools.