Psychological Empowerment as a Mediator Between Teachers’ Perceptions of Authentic Leadership and Their Withdrawal and Citizenship Behaviors

Purpose: This study explores the mediating role of psychological
empowerment on authentic leadership, organizational citizenship behaviors
(OCB), and a variety of withdrawal behaviors among teachers, using the
psychological model of perceptions-attitudes-behaviors.
Research Design: A total of 366 teachers from 23 randomly selected Israeli schools participated
in the study. The research combined self-reports and school records taken
at regular time intervals regarding three withdrawal behaviors: lateness,
absenteeism, and intent to leave. The model for the hierarchical data
(teachers within schools) that included latent as well as manifest variables
was analyzed using the Mplus statistical package applying to multilevel
analysis.
Findings: “Impact,” a dimension of psychological empowerment,
was found to mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and
OCB, whereas “self-determination, meaning, and competence,” the other
dimension of psychological empowerment, was found to mediate the
relationship between authentic leadership and absence frequency. No
mediating relationship was found for psychological empowerment on
authentic leadership and the other withdrawal behaviors of lateness and
intent to leave.
Research Implications: The present study improves the
Ajzen and Fishbein model. While most previous withdrawal behavior studies
focused on a single dimension of withdrawal behaviors and did not consider
OCB, the present study presents an integrative framework, focusing on the
mediating role of psychological empowerment as a consistent link between
authentic leadership and a spectrum of teachers’ withdrawal behaviors and
OCB.
 Practical Implications: These findings should encourage principals
to promote high standards of authentic leadership to empower their
teachers, increase OCB, and reduce absenteeism among teachers.