Cultural and Psychological Dynamics in School Leadership: The Moderating Role of Trust in the Relationship Between Teachers' Cultural Values and Their Expectations for Paternalistic Leadership

Abstract

Although a growing body of theoretical work indicated that the cultural orientation of societies shapes their understanding of leadership, there is a lack of empirical research to explore how individual cultural value orientations shape teachers' expectations for school leadership. This empirical research addresses this gap by examining the relationship between teachers' cultural value tendencies and their expectations for principals' paternalistic leadership behaviours, considering the moderating role of trust in the principal. This study analysed data collected from 738 teachers in Türkiye, employing a moderated structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. The results indicate that teachers' cultural value orientations are significantly related to their paternalistic leadership expectations, meaning that teachers who indicate that they are more collectivist, feminine, short-term orientated, avoidant of uncertainty, and open to power distance tend to expect their principals to exert stronger paternalistic leadership practices. Additionally, we found a significant moderating role of teachers' trust in the principal, suggesting that higher trust levels strengthen the relationship between cultural values and paternalistic leadership expectations. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of cultural and psychological dynamics in schools, especially concerning the role of individual cultural value dispositions and trust influencing the extent to which teachers desire their principals to demonstrate paternalist leadership behaviours.