Xieraili Nuermaimaiti, Aminamu Abuduwaili

Aminamu Abuduwaili

Novermber 20, 2025

Transformational leadership, Teacher job satisfaction, Influence mechanism, Educational management, Psychological needs.

Teachers’ job satisfaction is a key factor influencing education quality and school effectiveness. Transformational leadership, widely recognized for its positive impact, has been shown to effectively enhance such satisfaction. While existing studies confirm a correlation between transformational leadership and teacher job satisfaction, systematic investigation into the underlying mediating mechanisms remains limited. From an educational management perspective, this study integrates theoretical insights to conduct an in-depth analysis of the specific pathways through which transformational leadership affects teacher job satisfaction. The findings indicate that this leadership style enhances job satisfaction primarily by fulfilling teachers’ intrinsic psychological needs—such as for meaning, autonomy, competence, and respect—through four key mechanisms: spiritual motivation and vision integration; intellectual stimulation and professional autonomy; individualized consideration and psychological support; and high expectations with role modeling. This research provides a theoretical foundation and strategic insights to support educational administrators in consciously applying transformational leadership practices.

© 2025, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license