Understanding Middle Leaders' Distributed Leadership Factors as Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Fostering Teacher Commitment to Change

ABSTRACT This study aims to examine which middle leaders' distributed leadership factors (cohesive leadership team, participative decision‐making, leadership support and leadership supervision) are sufficient and to what degree these four factors are necessary for fostering high teacher commitment to change (TCTC). Data were gathered from 1018 Malaysian primary school teachers. The partial least squares analysis indicated positive relationships between the four middle leaders' distributed leadership factors and TCTC. The necessary condition analysis revealed that cohesive leadership team and participative decision‐making are necessary and sufficient conditions for fostering TCTC. While leadership support and leadership supervision were identified as necessary conditions, they were deemed less important. This study shifts the focus from principal‐centric distributed leadership to middle leaders' distributed leadership. This theoretical shift underscores the unique contributions of middle leaders' distributed leadership in driving TCTC in primary school settings by employing an expanded analytical approach.