The influence of servant leadership on job satisfaction with mediating effect of teachers’ self-efficacy among Chinese primary school teachers in Kelantan

This study examined the relationships between servant leadership dimensions comprising of emotional healing, creating value for the community, conceptual skills, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first and behaving ethically with job satisfaction among teachers in Kelantan Chinese Primary Schools. The study also aimed to determine if self-efficacy mediates the relationships between emotional healing, creating value for the community, conceptual skills, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first and behaving ethically with job satisfaction among teachers in Kelantan Chinese Primary Schools. A quantitative and questionnaire survey method was employed in this study. Stratified random sampling was employed in collecting the data. A total of 504 school teachers were randomly selected to answer the questionnaire. About 227 responses were returned and 219 were found useable for the final analysis using the Structural Equation Model-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS). The findings revealed emotional healing and conceptual skills had significant and positive relationships with job satisfaction, while creating value for the community, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first and behaving ethically did not have significant relationship with job satisfaction. In addition, the study confirmed no mediating effect of teachers’ self-efficacy on the relationship between emotional healing, creating value for the community, conceptual skills, empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, putting subordinates first and behaving ethically with job satisfaction. Finally, the study’s theoretical and practical implications as well as the limitations and directions for future research were provided and discussed.