Leadership, autonomy, and organizational trust as predictors of teacher wellbeing and job satisfaction: a...

Leadership behaviors play a critical role in shaping educators' psychological wellbeing and job satisfaction. However, less is known about the mechanisms through which leadership influences these outcomes across education systems with differing performance levels. This study examines the mediating roles of professional autonomy and organizational trust in the relationship between leadership behaviors, wellbeing, and job satisfaction among educators in different PISA-performing economies.

Using PISA 2022 teacher data, this study analyzes responses from educators in three economies with contrasting PISA rankings: Brazil (low-performing; N = 4,051), Malaysia (medium-performing; N = 3,711), and Macao (high-performing; N = 1,656). Descriptive statistics and mediation analyses were employed to examine both direct and indirect effects of leadership behaviors on employee wellbeing and job satisfaction through professional autonomy and organizational trust.

The findings reveal that leadership behaviors are directly associated with both wellbeing and job satisfaction across all three economies. In addition, professional autonomy and organizational trust function as significant mediators in these relationships. The strength and configuration of the mediation pathways differ across the three economies, indicating context-specific patterns rather than a single uniform mediation model.

These results contribute to the organizational behavior and educational leadership literature by demonstrating that supportive leadership practices enhance educators' psychological wellbeing and job satisfaction through increased autonomy and trust. Importantly, the varying magnitude of these effects across economies highlights the influence of systemic and contextual factors, suggesting that leadership interventions should be tailored to national and organizational contexts rather than applied uniformly across education systems.