AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP AND TEACHER MORALE: IMPACT ON ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIOR IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Ma. Celia T. Roncesvalles and Dr. Amelita A. Gaerlan The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 23 November 2019 Final Accepted: 25 December 2019 Published: January 2020

The success of schools relies predominantly on the leadership styles of school leaders and teachers' behaviors toward work. Despite the evidence showing that authentic leadership can effectively operate in an increasingly complicated environment, limited studies have focused on its impact on educational organizations. This quantitative study was aimed at examining the impactof authentic leadership and teacher morale on organizational citizenship behavior in the context of higher education using Multiple Regression Analysis. Survey data were collected from 150 college teacher-respondents from different universities in the Philippines. Results yielded that the deans' authentic leadership positively promotes teacher morale and organizational citizenship behavior in higher education. Moreover, teacher morale positively promotes organizational citizenship behavior in higher education. This study has shown that authentic leadership is important in driving teacher morale and organizational citizenship behavior of teachers in higher education. The results provide new significant information of the importance of authentic leadership on educational organization. This work would allow for more scholarly attention to authentic leadership in the context of educational organization and may direct future research on its effect on other organizational outcomes and behavioral performance.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….... Introduction:-
There is a constant and growing need for a positive and genuine leadership style against today's political, societal, and environmental turmoil (Stewart Wherry, 2012; Wang, Sui, Luthans, Wang & Wu, 2014). Both Western and Eastern societies place the utmost importance on leaders' authenticity and integrity (Wang & Hsieh, 2013). Furthermore, Hassan and Ahmed (2011) believe that leadership in organizations should be authentic for it to have a long-term effectiveness and success. By treating their employees authentically, leaders are able to develop a humane organization with enduring outcomes (Wang & Hsieh, 2013). Authentic leadership has been regarded as a leadership style that is well-suited when it comes to dealing with corporate scandals, economic crises, and rapid changes that organizations have been experiencing in recent years (Liu, Cutcher & Grant, 2015). Authentic leaders exhibit behaviors that promote positive psychological capacities and ethical climate, which in turn, foster followers who feel psychologically empowered to take more responsibility and ownership of their work (Walumbwa, Wang, Wang, Schaubroeck & Avolio, 2010). According to Evers (2011), the relationship between the leader and the follower is crucial when it comes to understanding the concept of leadership. Chavez (2012) 305 argues that leadership is not a static concept; rather, it involves other people at work and organizational outcomes. This kind of leadership pertains to the results that are related to human behaviors and perceptions in the workplace, including morale and organizational citizenship behavior, among others.
Morale is regarded to be a significant factor when it comes to driving performance in an organization (Upadhyay & Gupta, 2012). Previous literature has emphasized the importance of employee morale in organizations, and the adverse effects that poor morale could have on the overall performance and productivity of the organization (Ngambi, 2011). According to Ngambi (2011), it is more likely that morale is influenced from the top down, such as leadership and the leadership approaches taken in response to internal and external changes, rather than from the bottom up. Meanwhile, organizational citizenship behavior is another organizational outcome that has a crucial impact on the workplace (Stewart Wherry, 2012). This refers to the behaviors of the employees that are beyond the call of duty, discretionary, and not rewarded under the formal reward system of the organization (Joo & Jo, 2017). On the other hand, employees who have lower morale were found to be linked with decreasing organizational citizenship behavior (Eatough, Chang, Miloslavic & Johnson, 2011).
Previous studies have shown that authentic leadership has limited studies in the context of educational organization but has been given much attention in business management literature in the context such as service industry, banks and financial industry, telecom industry, and hospital setting, among others, in different countries around the world ( Marques (2008) found that authentic leaders of businesses located in Southern California guide their employees in order to achieve results and boost their morale in the workplace. Another example is the study of Wang and Hsieh, 2013 that leaders' authentic leadership has a positive impact on employee behavior and work outcomes, including organizational citizenship behavior. The study of Walumbwa et al. (2010) also discovered that the leaders' authentic leadership behavior is positively associated to organizational citizenship behavior of the telecom firms' employees in major cities in China. Few studies on the effect of authentic leadership include the study of Bento and Ribeiro (2013), which suggests the existence of authentic leadership in public and private schools and revealed that there is no notable distinction between the public and private school leaders' level of authenticity. The study of Roncesvalles and Sevilla (2015) also revealed that authentic leadership has a positive impact of subordinates' trust and work performance in educational organization. Moreover, the study of Opatokun et al. (2013) confirmed that the indicators of authentic leadership namely self-awareness, balanced processing, relational transparency, and internalized moral perspective are predictors of authentic leadership.
This paper intended to examine the significant influence of authentic leadership of school leaders and teacher morale on teachers' organizational citizenship behavior in the context of higher education. The study investigated whether this particular leadership style has a positive influence specifically on educators who are currently teaching in the universities in the Philippines. This work sought to guide school leaders in terms of recognizing the significance of authentic leadership on teacher morale and organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, it set to help educational leaders in embodying authentic leadership that could promote long-term effectiveness and success of the organization. Lastly, the study set to address the existing gap in research literature when it comes to the impact of authentic leadership on teacher morale and organizational citizenship behavior in educational organizations.
Literature Review:-Authentic Leadership:-Authenticity, which is derived from the Greek phrase "know thyself" is about being self-aware and behaving according to one's true self (Gardner, Cogliser, Davis & Dickens, 2011). According to Wang et al. (2014), authentic leaders who are perceived by followers to be the embodiment of high moral standards, integrity, and honesty, are able to ignite the same values among the latter through self-awareness, balanced processing, relational transparency, and internalized moral perspective. Self-awareness refers to one's understanding of self, standard, and attention focus (Tonkin, 2013). Self-awareness involves one's understanding about oneself, while standard in one's perception of the proper attitudes and behaviors, and attention focus which involves the gap between the self and standard that leaders are taken notice for continued growth and self-improvement. Relational transparency involves a leader's transparency that followers perceive based on the former's consistency in their actions, words, and values (Tonkin, 2013). Balanced processing refers to instances when an authentic leader makes a decision objectively by first analyzing all the information and seeking the advice of their followers (Tonkin, 2013). Internalized moral perspective involves ethical standards and moral behaviors that are congruent with the authentic leader's own ethics 306 and morals. Consequently, followers are motivated to demonstrate high self-worth, a commitment to give back to the organization, and positive organizational behaviors (Wang et al., 2014). Empirical research found that authentic leadership behavior is positively linked to organizational citizenship behavior, while management practitioner literature indicates that authentic leaders are able to motivate followers through modeling and conveying a deep sense of responsibility in delivering long-term positive outcomes (Wang et al., 2014).
Teacher Morale:-Morale is described as a mental state and a feeling. Moreover, it refers to a mental and emotional attitude of a person (Robinson, 2010). It is a term described as a significant force in the success of any human aspiration. Teacher morale is the outcome of teacher's set of goals, experiences, expectations, and derived values (Ehineni, 2017). According to Hearn (2013), there are several factors that affect teacher morale, such as emotional needs, demands on time, student behavior, demanding curriculum issues, school environment, lack of parent support, pressures of state testing, and lack of school administration support. However, the most significant factors that affect teacher morale include the principals' ability to lead as well as their initiative to invite teachers to collaborate with them (Hearn, 2013). Teacher morale is composed of 10 dimensions, which include, rapport among teachers, curriculum issues, teacher salary, community support for education, teacher load, satisfaction with teaching, teacher status in the community, school facilities and services, rapport with principal, and community expectations (Hearn, 2013;Webb, 2014). However, several studies yielded that school leader's leadership and the relationship between the leader and the teachers are the most important factors that affect teacher morale (Cerit, 2010;Evers, 2011;Moore, 2012). Furthermore, the relationship between the principal and the teacher can be considered as the most crucial, since it promotes the level of job satisfaction, which in turn influences the school environment (Hearn, 2013;Moore, 2012;Robinson, 2010).
Organizational Citizenship Behavior:-Mohammad, QuoquabHabib and Alias (2011) characterize organizational citizenship behavior as a behavior that is related to work, which is unrelated to the organization's formal reward system and discretionary. Organizational citizenship behavior, which can also be called extra-role behavior, pertains to helping behaviors that are offered to supervisors, colleagues, and students in the context of school organizations ( Authentic Leadership and Morale:-According to Sirota and Klein (2013), employee morale is considered to be a function of how an organization is led by its leaders. Authentic leaders who assist their employees when and where it is needed in order to achieve results are found to enhance staff morale (Marques, 2008). In addition, they can help build a positive work environment, which largely contributes to achieving leadership outcomes and in turn enhance employee morale (Jackson & Daly, 2010; Sageer, Rafat & Agarwal, 2012). In a study of retail employees from Chicago, United States, Murrell-Jones (2012) discovered that there is a positive association between employee morale and leadership practices.

Authentic Leadership and Organizational Citizenship Behavior:-
Authentic leadership is found to have a positive link with followers' organizational citizenship behaviors (Valsania, Leon, Alonso & Cantisano, 2012). Empirical research has yielded that authentic leadership behavior is positively linked to organizational citizenship behavior, while management practitioner literature has indicated that authentic leaders are able to motivate followers through modeling and conveying a deep sense of responsibility in delivering long-term positive outcomes (Wang et al., 2014). According to Tonkin (2013), research has showed the close connection between authentic leadership and the organizational citizenship behavior of followers. In particular, authentic leadership provides a positive connection with follower altruism, since authentic leaders also embody altruism while followers share the latter's beliefs and values. Meanwhile, studies on teachers' organizational citizenship behavior have found that those with high organizational citizenship behaviors are more likely to support and suggest extra-curricular activities, volunteer innovative suggestions, and participate in new committees (Belogolovsky & Somech, 2010).

Morale and Organizational Citizenship Behavior:-
Previous studies have shown that employee morale can predict organizational citizenship behavior. Morale is regarded as a proximal indicator of employee behavior, and positive morale motivates organizational citizenship behavior among employees (Jackson, Rossi, Rickamer Hoover & Johnson, 2012). In particular, the dimension of organizational citizenship behavior namely, altruism is positively related to morale (Sagnak, 2017). Employees who feel that their organizations fulfill their obligations have higher morale, which in turn maximizes the possibility that they respond in kind by displaying behaviors that are preferred by the organization (Jackson et al., 2012). Consequently, followers are motivated to demonstrate high self-worth, a commitment to give back to the organization, and positive organizational behaviors (Wang et al., 2014).
Theoretical Framework:-Based on the authentic leadership theory, leaders can be deemed as authentic leaders when the expectations of their followers are met, emphasizing the significance of the point of view of the followers when it comes to understanding the meaning of the authentic leadership construct (Owusu-Bempah, 2012). This theory suggests that when authentic leaders embody and support their followers' self-determination or the autonomy and discretion to do one's work, followers' active engagement, higher productivity, and greater job satisfaction (Wong & Laschinger, 2013) are yielded. Furthermore, followers become more engaged in their work when they perceive that their leaders are true to their words and actions, and the former can identify with the latter's modeling of behavioral integrity (Vogelgesang, Leroy & Avolio, 2013). Meanwhile, complementary congruity theory pertains to the match between the behaviors or capabilities exemplified by leaders and corresponding needs of the followers (Wang et al., 2014). In line with this, the theory of needs posits that specific needs are centered on meeting the needs in general areas such as affiliation, power, and achievement in order to increase workplace satisfaction (Robinson, 2010). Furthermore, morale is positively affected when the relational needs at work are met. According to Robinson (2010), this theory can guide educational leaders in meeting the individual needs of their school personnel. This study is based on the aforementioned theories on authentic leadership, teacher morale, and organizational citizenship behavior for the purpose of exploring the impact of authentic leadership and teacher morale on the organizational citizenship behavior of teachers in higher education.

The Research Method:-Research Design:-
The study employed a quantitative approach and a descriptive survey method to examine the impact of authentic leadership and teacher morale on organizational citizenship behavior of teachers in higher education. The study utilized standardized questionnaires in conducting the survey. The respondents of the study were chosen using a purposive sampling technique to ensure that the data collected from the respondents are relevant to the study. Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) was used in the study. MRA is a multivariate statistical technique and a method of general linear modeling that is employed to observe the relationship between a single dependent variable (DV) and a set of independent variables (IV) (Roux, 2010). Evers (2011) used MRA to measure the association between principal leadership and teacher morale. Meanwhile, Tonkin (2013) also employed this tool to analyze the influence and predictive capacity of the dimensions of authentic leadership on the organizational citizenship behavior dimensions.

Subjects and Study Site:-
The sample size of 150 participants was invited to answer the survey from four universities in the Philippines, particularly two private and two public universities. The study used a simple random sampling technique through fishbowl method in choosing universities as the sample. The number of participants (N=150) in the study qualifies the use of multiple regression analysis. For instance, the study of Akinbobola (2011) employed multiple regression analysis to examine the impact of job satisfaction on job involvement in the workplace using 150 participants. The study also utilized certain inclusion criteria to minimize the threats to the validity of the study. The participants should have been employed with a permanent job status in the institution. Also, the respondents should have been working with their deans for at least one year to make certain that professional relationship has already been founded. Hence, a well-founded assessment of the teachers to their deans' authentic leadership can be examined. These strategies are in line with the purposive sampling method, which is based on informational considerations to get valuable and relevant answers from the participants (Hassan & Ahmed, 2011).

Instrumentation:-Authentic Leadership:-
A 16-item authentic leadership questionnaire designed by Avolio, Gardner, and Walubwa (2007) was utilized. The authentic leadership questionnaire (ALQ) is distributed by Mind Garden, Inc., which measures the Dean's authentic leadership dimensions, including self-awareness, balanced processing, relational transparency, and internalized moral perspective, as perceived by their followers using a 5-point Likert Scale (0 = Not at all, 1= Once in a while, 2 = Sometimes, 3= Fairly often, and 4 =Frequently, if not always). Leroy et al. (2012) utilized this questionnaire to collect data from employees in the service industry located in Belgium. Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ) has been found to be a reliable measure with the following internal consistency reliability for each dimension 309 including self-awareness, α = .73; balanced processing, α = .70; relational transparency, α = .77; and internalized moral perspective, α = .73 (Stewart Wherry, 2012).

Teacher Morale:-Teacher morale was measured using Bentley and Rempel's (1980) 40item Purdue Teacher Opinionaire (PTO).
This questionnaire has already been tested and proven in terms of validity and reliability in numerous school settings (Hearn, 2013). The study selected the questions involving dimensions that focus on school-wide morale, which include rapport with principal and Teaching satisfaction (Hearn, 2013;Evers, 2011). This was to ensure that the questions were relevant to teachers, who provided a rating of their perceived level of teacher morale using a 4-point Likert scale ranging from (1= Disagree, 2 = Probably disagree, 3= Probably agree, and 4 =Agree). Second, the Purdue Teacher Opinionnaire (PTO), has already been tested and retested empirically a hundred times in school settings starting from when it was first developed in 1967 (Hearn, 2013). According to Hearn (2013), the results of the reliability coefficients (Cronbach's alpha) were between .62 and .88 with the total reliability coefficient of .87. This questionnaire was also been analyzed in terms of its consistency with the educational language at present in order to ensure that age would not affect the responses to the survey (Moore, 2012).

Organizational Citizenship Behavior:-
Organizational citizenship behavior was assessed using Podsakoff et al.'s (1990) 24-item scale that includes the dimensions of altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, courtesy, and civic virtue. A 7-point Likert scale ranging from (1= Strongly disagree to 7= Strongly agree) was used. Richards and Schat (2011) employed this questionnaire to measure the organizational citizenship behavior of employees from different sectors, including banking, retail, health care, technology, education, public service, construction, manufacturing, travel and transportation, and hospitality and food services. The 24-item organizational citizenship behavior questionnaire by Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Moorman and Fetter (1990) has an internal consistency reliability for each dimension (Cronbach's alpha) including altruism, α = .85; conscientiousness, α = .82; sportsmanship, α = .85; courtesy, α = .85; and civic virtue, α = .70 (Stewart Wherry, 2012). The study of Podsakoff et al. (1990) shows that the measure has sufficient content validity, and the items are drawn on the aspects of the constructs or dimensions that they represent (Stewart Wherry, 2012).
Lastly, a Robotfoto was used to get the background information of the respondents. Robotfoto refers to the respondents' personal data sheets that contain their personal and professional information (de Guzman & Tan, 2007) that were needed in the study.

Data Gathering Procedure:-
Request letters for permission to conduct a study, together with the questionnaires, were sent to the deans of the selected four universities in the Philippines. The 150 respondents received the letters containing the objectives of the study and the contributions to the field of education upon the approvals of the deans. The questionnaires were distributed to the respondents who signed the consent form that signifies their willingness to participate in the study. The participants were college teachers and currently working in a permanent job status in their respective universities. Moreover, they were under the leadership of their Deans for at least one year during the duration of the study. The researcher personally distributed the questionnaires to the 150 willing teacher respondents. The participants were assured of utmost confidentiality of their identities including the data that were collected and the name of the school in order to encourage them to be more open and honest with their answers.

Ethical Considerations:-
The proper procedure in conducting a study was observed by the researcher. Invitation letters were sent to the Deans from four chosen universities in the Philippines. The letters contain the purpose of the study and an introduction from the researcher. Upon the approval of the Deans, the questionnaires, together with the introductory letter explaining the background of the study, were sent to the prospective teacher participants. A signed consent form by the participants signifies their willingness to participate in the study. Participants were also asked to indicate in the Robotfoto their age, gender, and the job position they held, among others, as part of the demographic information to be collected (Ahadi & Suandi, 2014). The participants were also assured that the identity of the school as well as the participants of the study would remain anonymous and all data collected would be kept confidential. This was to encourage honest answers from the participants.

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Data Analysis:-The data were analyzed by using multiple regression analysis. Previous studies employed multiple regression analysis to investigate if authentic leadership would predict follower satisfaction, self-efficacy, and work engagement (Roux, 2010;Rader, 2015). Since multiple regression analysis can help in predicting the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable, this study utilized it to analyze the data regarding the impact of authentic leadership and teacher morale on organizational citizenship behavior in higher education.

Participants:
The demographic profile of the respondents (N=150) show that all of the respondents have permanent job status (100%) in their present institutions and most of them are female (59%), married (64%) with 38 to 52 years of age (49%). Majority of the respondents have units in doctoral degree and have 10 years and below teaching experience (52%). Lastly, most of the respondents have worked for over 5 years (77%) in their present departments.
Testing of Hypothesis:-Authentic leadership was hypothesized to have an impact on teacher morale. Authentic leadership and teacher morale (IVs) were hypothesized to have a positive impact on organizational citizenship behavior (DV) using regression analysis.    Table 4 shows that authentic leadership (independent variable) has a significant impact on teacher morale (dependent variable) (β= .93, p< .01). Also, it presents that the dean's authentic leadership has a strong positive relationship with teacher morale with R value of .93 (93%). The results yield that the R square value is .86 (86%), which indicates a strong dependency of the teacher morale on the authentic leadership of the deans. The impact of authentic leadership and teacher morale (independent variables) on organizational citizenship behavior (dependent variable) was assessed in the Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA). The effect of the deans' authentic leadership on teacher morale was also examined in the study to determine the significance of these three variables (authentic leadership, teacher morale and organizational citizenship behavior) in higher education. The results of the study show that the deans' authentic leadership has a significant effect on teacher morale (β= .93, p< .01), which supports Hypothesis 1. Moreover, the results suggest that authentic leadership significantly influences teachers' organizational citizenship behavior in higher education, which supports Hypothesis 2 (β= .45, p< .01). The results also imply that teacher morale significantly affects the organizational citizenship behavior (β= .47, p< .01) that supports Hypothesis 3.

Discussion:-
The present study examined the impact of authentic leadership and teacher morale on organizational citizenship behavior in higher education. The results show that the variables have high ratings, which signify that the deans possess the authentic leadership behaviors and the teachers show high level of morale and have high organizational citizenship behavior in their respective institutions.

The Impact of Authentic Leadership on Teacher Morale in Higher Education:-
This study investigated the impact of authentic leadership on teacher morale in higher education and tested the Hypothesis 1 whether authentic leadership has a positive impact on teacher morale in higher education. The results of the study reveal that the deans who exhibit self-awareness, transparency, balanced processing and internalized moral perspectivehave positive impact on teachers' morale in higher education, which supports Hypothesis 1.This result confirms previous research in which authentic leadership is imperative in the success of schools and has the greatest influence on teacher morale, among others (Misra, 2002).

The Effect of Authentic Leadership on Teachers' Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Higher Education:-
The study examined the effect of authentic leadership on organizational citizenship behavior in higher education and tested the Hypothesis 2 whether authentic leadership significantly influences teachers' organizational citizenship behavior in higher education. The study found that the deans authentic leadership behaviors positively afftect the organizational citizenship behavior of the teachers in higher education which supports hypothesis 2.This result is affirmed by the previous studies demonstrating that employees who perceived their leaders' behavior as authentic tend to show a higher level of organizational citizenship behaviors (Joo and Jo, 2017).

The Effect of Teacher Morale on Organizational Citizenship Behavior in Higher Education:-
The study also assessed the effect of teacher morale on organizational citizenship behavior in higher education and tested the Hypothesis 3 whether teacher morale significantly affects the organizational citizenship behavior in higher education. The results of the study show that teacher morale has a positive impact on organizational citizenship behavior of the teachers in higher education, supporting Hypothesis 3. This result is affirmed by the previous research in which positive morale not only motivates organizational citizenship behavior, but it is also considered as a proximal indicator of behavioral outcomes (Jackson & Rossi, 2012).

Conclusion:-
This present study has shown that authentic leadership is important in driving teacher morale and organizational citizenship behavior of the teachers. The results yield new significant information of the importance of authentic leadership on educational organization as it promotes teacher morale and organizational citizenship behavior of the teachers in higher education. The study contributes to educational leadership literature, authentic leadership literature, and educational leadership practice. It also provides additional understanding of how authentic leadership can help in achieving positive outcomes in terms of discretionary follower behaviors.