Authentic leadership as a predictor of organizational citizenship behaviour and teachers’ burnout: What's ‘quiet quitting’ got to do with it?

Abstract

Teachers’ attitudes and behaviours have been studied for the past few decades, but recently, especially due to changes following covid-19, a new concept named ‘quiet quitting’ has emerged. This term refers to the widespread phenomenon of employees setting limits to their employers and insisting on their unwillingness to go beyond job requirements. This study explored the relationships between principals’ authentic leadership (AL) and teachers’ organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and burnout, mediated by teachers’ organizational commitment, while distinguishing between the teachers’ level and the school level. One Thousand one hundred and seventy-nine Israeli teachers from 69 schools participated in this study. Results indicate that organizational commitment mediated the relationship between AL and burnout on both the teachers’ and the school level. Organizational commitment mediation regarding the relationship between AL and OCB was confirmed for the teachers’ level only. OCB positively correlated to burnout on the school level only. These findings clarify the concept of ‘quiet quitting’ among teachers. Actually, it seems to be a positive trend serving to reduce burnout among teachers who overwork themselves. These findings can help enlighten school leaders regarding their staff's behaviour as well as the school climate they wish to cultivate.