Servant Leadership Climate and Teacher Work Engagement in Faith-Based Basic Education Institutions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21423675Keywords:
accountability, faith-based education, servant leadership climate, stewardship, teacher dedication, work engagementAbstract
This study investigated how a shared servant leadership climate related to teacher work engagement in faith-based basic education institutions in Quezon City. A cross-sectional multilevel explanatory design was used to account for teachers being nested within schools. Data were gathered through validated measures of servant leadership climate and work engagement, with the adapted instrument demonstrating strong content validity and high internal consistency. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis supported the proposed structure of the constructs, while within-group agreement and intraclass correlation coefficients justified the aggregation of leadership ratings at the institutional level. Findings showed that servant leadership climate was generally favorable, with stewardship, humility, interpersonal acceptance, and authenticity receiving the strongest ratings. Courage, accountability, and empowerment emerged as comparatively weaker dimensions. Teacher work engagement was also favorable, with dedication obtaining the highest level, followed by vigor, while absorption was only moderate. Multilevel structural equation modeling revealed that servant leadership climate had a significant positive relationship with overall teacher work engagement and with each of its dimensions. The strongest association was found with dedication, while the weakest was observed with absorption. Servant leadership climate explained a substantial portion of the between-school variation in work engagement. The results indicated that faith-based schools could strengthen teacher engagement by combining service-oriented leadership with firmer accountability, meaningful empowerment, fair workload practices, and protected time for instructional preparation. Leadership development should therefore promote care, stewardship, courage, and shared responsibility as interconnected features of mission-centered school administration.
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