Transformational Leadership of School Administrators and High Team Engagement: Mediated by Team Efficacy and Citizenship Behavior

What team dynamics contribute to high team engagement in school settings? Grounded in the IMO framework of team effectiveness, this study demonstrates how the transformational leadership style contributes toward establishing high team engagement: through the mediating roles of team efficacy and citizenship behavior. The specific hypotheses of this study are also based on the social cognitive and exchange theory. With a sample of 2,168 members of 138 teams of schoolteachers and their administrators, the statistical results provide evidence of the two postulated mechanisms through which transformational leadership influences high team engagement. The results indicate that transformational leadership is significantly related to team engagement and that high team efficacy and citizenship behavior act as mediators in the relationship between this style and team engagement. Additionally, team citizenship behavior positively mediates between transformational leadership and team efficacy. Finally, team efficacy positively mediates between this behavioral style of administrators and team citizenship behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are delineated as well.