Distributed leadership and job satisfaction of Turkish deputy principals as middle leaders: The roles of work engagement and trust in principal

This study aimed to test a moderated mediation model in which the relationship between distributed leadership and middle leaders’ job satisfaction was examined, with trust in principal as the moderator and work engagement as the mediator. Using data from 335 deputy principals working in primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary schools in Ankara, we tested structural relationships among the variables using latent moderated structural equations with maximum likelihood estimation. The findings indicate that distributed leadership is directly and positively associated with both work engagement and job satisfaction, and work engagement is also positively related to job satisfaction. Trust in principal significantly moderated the relationship between distributed leadership and work engagement, such that this relationship became stronger as trust increased. Finally, the indirect effect of distributed leadership on job satisfaction through work engagement was significant under conditions of high trust in principal. These findings suggest that enhancing middle leaders’ job satisfaction depends not only on the distribution of leadership responsibilities but also on the presence of a trust-based relational climate.