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. 2025 Aug 25;15(1):31291.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-17311-8.

Servant leadership effects on teacher wellbeing and enthusiasm in Turkish schools and the moderating influence of distributed leadership

Emine Doğan  1
Affiliations

Servant leadership effects on teacher wellbeing and enthusiasm in Turkish schools and the moderating influence of distributed leadership

Emine Doğan. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

There is a consensus in the literature that the integrated leadership approach, which includes different leadership styles, has an impact on teachers' emotions as well as their behaviors. The aim of this study is to examine the moderator role of distributed leadership in the effect of servant leadership on teachers' teaching enthusiasm through their subjective well-being in Turkish schools. In this cross-sectional study, a moderated mediation model was tested with a quantitative approach. The analyses were conducted with data collected from 827 teachers from 81 provinces of Türkiye. The study results revealed that there was no significant direct relationship between servant leadership and teaching enthusiasm; however, there was a significant and positive relationship between servant leadership and teacher subjective well-being and between teacher subjective well-being and teaching enthusiasm. Additionally, the study found that when distributed leadership was high, the relationship between servant leadership and teacher subjective well-being and the indirect effect of servant leadership on teaching enthusiasm through teacher subjective well-being were strengthened. In other words, the study concluded that school principals who exhibit both servant and distributed leadership can increase teachers' teaching enthusiasm by improving teachers' subjective wellbeing.

Keywords: Distributed leadership; Integrated leadership; Moderated mediation effect; Servant leadership; Teacher subjective well-being; Teaching enthusiasm.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical approval: I confirm that all methods in the research have been conducted in accordance with relevant guidelines/regulations. This study adheres to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki and received approval from the Ethics Committee of Siirt University (07.10.2024-7678). All participants provided voluntary informed consent and were informed that they could withdraw from the study at any time. Furthermore, our data underwent anonymization procedures to ensure participant privacy.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Conceptual model of study.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Findings regarding the moderated mediation effect.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The moderator effect of distributed leadership on the relationship between servant leadership and teacher subjective well-being.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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