Teachers’ Perceptions of School Heads’ Transformational Leadership Practices and Perceived Organizational Performance in Public Elementary Schools: An Explanatory Sequential Mixed-Methods Study in District I, Schools Division of Kidapawan City

This study examined the relationship between school heads’ transformational leadership and perceived organizational performance in public elementary schools in District I, Schools Division of Kidapawan City. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design combined surveys of 150 teachers across five schools with semi-structured interviews involving 18 purposively selected participants. Researcher-developed questionnaires assessed seven leadership behaviors and four organizational performance domains. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, linear mixed modeling, and thematic analysis guided data interpretation. Teachers rated transformational leadership (M = 4.618) and organizational performance (M = 4.635) very highly. A strong positive relationship emerged (r = .841, p < .001), with leadership remaining significantly associated with perceived performance after adjusting for teacher tenure and school clustering (B = 0.774, p < .001). Teacher tenure was not statistically significant (p = .851). Qualitative findings emphasized shared direction, empowerment, professional trust, coordinated responsibilities, and institutional capacity, while participants identified staffing shortages, workload pressures, and infrastructure constraints as conditions associated with contrasting experiences. The findings demonstrated a significant association between transformational leadership and perceived organizational performance, influenced by organizational conditions. School heads should strengthen participatory leadership, distributed responsibilities, and institutional support systems. The cross-sectional design, self-reported measures, and unequal school sample sizes limited causal interpretation and generalizability. By integrating statistical findings with teachers’ experiences, the study provides context-specific evidence for strengthening educational leadership, institutional coordination, and sustainable school improvement.