The Correlation Between Spiritual Leadership and the Well-Being of Chinese Primary and Secondary School Teachers

Abstract

Primary and secondary school teachers are one of the most important human resources in the field of basic education in China, and the well-being of teachers has been receiving much attention. Principals' leadership styles, and attitudes toward teachers, often have a direct impact on teachers’ well-being. As a new leadership style, spiritual leadership plays a positive role in both individuals and organizations in enterprise management. However, there is less research in the literature on spiritual leadership and teachers' well-being in educational field. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to transfer the role of spiritual leadership in corporate management to the field of basic education in China and to explore the mechanisms of spiritual leadership's influence on primary and secondary school teachers’ well-being. A survey of 311 Chinese primary and secondary school teachers found that the vision and hope/belief dimensions of spiritual leadership had a positive and significant effect on teacher well-being, but the other dimension of spiritual leadership, altruistic love, did not have a positive and significant effect on teacher well-being.