The Relationship between Elementary School Teachers’ Work Motivation and Well-Being: The Mediating Effects of Principal Leadership and Work Stress

Abstract

This research intends to examine the mediating effects of elementary school teachers’ perception of principal leadership and work stress on the relationship between work motivation and well-being. For this purpose, the present study sampled 400 elementary school teachers from the Seoul metropolitan area in South Korea. Subsequently, the participants answered four scales to measure work motivation, perception of principal leadership, work stress, and well-being. The 324 data finally collected consist of 276 females and 48 males. The research results are as follows. First, four variables had significant correlations with each other, positively or negatively. Second, there was no significant mediating effect of principal leadership on work motivation and well-being. Third, teachers’ work stress had a partial mediating effect on the relationship between work motivation and well-being. Fourth, principal leadership and work stress had a sequentially partial mediating effect on work motivation and well-being. This paper discusses these findings and then suggests the directions for future research.