The contribution of transformational leadership of school principals to improve the quality of education through mediation of organizational behavior in Serang City state elementary schools.

Abstract

This study investigates the contribution of transformational leadership enacted by school principals to the enhancement of educational quality, with organizational behavior posited as a mediating variable, in state elementary schools in Serang City. Despite ongoing educational reform initiatives in Indonesia, educational quality remains unevenly distributed, and the mechanisms through which school leadership influences institutional outcomes require further empirical clarification. Employing a quantitative explanatory research design, this study surveyed 291 teachers from public elementary schools using probability sampling techniques. Data were collected through a validated and reliable structured questionnaire and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling–Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). The findings demonstrate that transformational leadership and organizational behavior collectively exert a significant positive influence on educational quality. Specifically, transformational leadership exerts a statistically significant direct effect on both organizational behavior and educational quality. Furthermore, organizational behavior was found to significantly mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and educational quality, thereby functioning as a critical organizational mechanism through which leadership influences institutional performance. These findings underscore the imperative of cultivating transformational leadership competencies and nurturing constructive organizational behaviors as systematic strategies for improving educational quality in public elementary schools. Theoretically, this study extends the scholarly literature by confirming the mediating role of organizational behavior; practically, it provides evidence-based guidance for policymakers and school administrators engaged in the design of sustained leadership development programs.