Followership as a predictor of primary school teachers’ organisational commitment in Phan Thiet, Vietnam

Tan Nguyen Huynh Si

doi:10.65956/leqa.2026.52

Authors

Tan Nguyen Huynh Si Corresponding author email: nhsytan@gmail.com Phan Thiet University https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9801-2760

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.65956/leqa.2026.52

Keywords:

followership behaviour, organisational commitment, primary school teachers, Vietnam, PLS-SEM

Abstract

Leadership has dominated educational management research, yet school improvement also depends on teachers who actively interpret, support, and question school decisions. This cross-sectional quantitative study examined whether followership predicts affective, normative, and continuance commitment among 95 primary school teachers in Phan Thiet, Vietnam. Followership was measured using an adapted Kelley-based Revised Kelley Followership Questionnaire, and organisational commitment was modelled as three separate first-order reflective constructs. PLS-SEM results showed that followership was positively associated with affective commitment (β = 0.564, p < .001), normative commitment (β = 0.388, p < .001), and continuance commitment (β = 0.337, p < .001). The strongest explanatory and predictive evidence was found for affective commitment, as shown by the highest R², Q²_predict, and PLSpredict performance. Controlled analyses confirmed that the followership paths remained significant after accounting for gender, age, teaching experience, and school size, although age and teaching experience were more relevant to normative and continuance commitment. Supplementary dimension-specific analysis showed that active engagement predicted commitment more consistently than independent critical thinking. The findings suggest that teacher followership, especially active engagement, is most strongly linked to affective commitment to the school, while normative and continuance commitment depend more on career-stage and contextual factors.

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