Distributed leadership and teachers’ work engagement: subjective well-being as a mediator and perceived collective teacher efficacy as a moderator

Abstract

This study examined the association between distributed leadership and teachers’ work engagement, with teacher subjective well-being specified as a mediator and perceived collective teacher efficacy as a moderator. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources model and social cognitive theory, a moderated mediation model was tested using Bayesian structural equation modeling. Data were collected from 598 teachers working in 60 public schools in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Distributed leadership was positively associated with teacher subjective well-being [ β  = 0.233, 95% BCI (0.077, 0.381)] and work engagement [ β  = 0.234, 95% BCI (0.135, 0.333)], while subjective well-being was positively associated with work engagement [ β  = 0.172, 95% BCI (0.112, 0.232)]. The indirect association through subjective well-being was supported [ B  = 0.039, 95% BCI (0.012, 0.074)]. Perceived collective teacher efficacy moderated the association between distributed leadership and subjective well-being [ β  = 0.099, 95% BCI (0.003, 0.192)]. The conditional indirect association was supported at the mean and higher levels of perceived collective teacher efficacy but not at lower levels, and the index of moderated mediation excluded zero [ B  = 0.019, 95% BCI (0.001, 0.043)]. These conclusions remained stable under alternative prior specifications. The findings indicate an indirect statistical association between distributed leadership and work engagement through teacher subjective well-being, which varied according to perceived collective teacher efficacy. Given the cross-sectional, self-report design, this mediation represents a statistical decomposition of covariance rather than evidence of a causal mechanism or temporal sequence.