Informal teacher leadership and teacher occupational well-being in Chinese higher education: The role of sense of power

This study examined the relationships among informal teacher leadership, sense of power, and teacher occupational well-being among university teachers in eastern coastal China. Survey data from 404 full-time university teachers across ten universities were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results showed that informal teacher leadership was positively associated with sense of power and teacher occupational well-being, and that sense of power accounted for a significant indirect association between informal teacher leadership and teacher occupational well-being. These findings suggest that informal teacher leadership may relate to occupational well-being through teachers' perceived professional influence, while the direct association leaves open additional processes not captured by sense of power. The study makes an incremental contribution to research on informal teacher leadership and teacher occupational well-being by conceptualising informal teacher leadership as behaviourally enacted non-positional professional influence in higher education and by examining sense of power as a psychological correlate of peer-based professional influence among university teachers without formal administrative appointments.