Authentic Leadership and Teachers’ Intention to Stay: The Mediating Role of Perceived Organizational Support and Psychological Capital

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the mediation effect of psychological capital and perceived organizational support on the
relationship between authentic leadership and intention to stay. The structural equation modeling technique was used
to test the hypothesized model. A survey was administered to collect data targeting a sample of randomly selected
teachers working at high schools in Tehran. The results suggest that authentic leadership significantly influences
teachers’ intention to stay, psychological capital, perceived organizational support. As predicted, both perceived
organizational support and psychological capital had a significant positive direct effect on intention to stay. The
effect of authentic leadership on intention to stay was found to be mediated by teachers’ psychological capital and
perceived organizational support. This study shows how leaders can enhance teachers’ intention to stay by applying
authentic leadership, engendering psychological capital and creating supportive environment.