Principal Leadership, Work Climate, and School Culture as Predictors of Teacher Performance in Madrasah Aliyah: Evidence from Mranggen, Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59944/postaxial.v4i3.1896Keywords:
Principal leadership, Work climate, School culture, Teacher performance, Madrasah Aliyah, Islamic educationAbstract
Teacher performance in Madrasah Aliyah is associated with organizational conditions that shape teachers’ professional experiences. This study examined principal leadership, work climate, and school culture as predictors of teacher performance among 184 teachers from 21 Madrasah Aliyah in Mranggen District, Indonesia, selected through proportional random sampling from a population of 343 teachers. Data were collected using five-point Likert instruments and analyzed using Pearson correlation, simple regression, and multiple regression. All three organizational variables were positively associated with teacher performance at the bivariate level, with principal leadership showing the strongest relationship (r = .692, R² = .479, p < .001), followed by school culture and work climate. The simultaneous model explained 49.9% of the variance in teacher performance. Principal leadership retained a strong positive unique association (β = .783, p < .001), whereas work climate showed a negative partial coefficient and school culture was not independently significant after the other predictors were controlled. Relational leadership emerged as the most prominent leadership dimension. These findings clarify the substantial overlap among leadership, work climate, and school culture while identifying principal leadership as the most consistent organizational predictor in the model. Practically, the results highlight the importance of strengthening relationship-centered leadership while simultaneously maintaining psychologically supportive working conditions and an academic culture that supports professional improvement
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