Influence of Transformational Leadership Style and Principals’ Decision Making on High-School Teachers’ Organisational Commitment in Jakarta Laboratory Schools

Laboratory schools are faced with the challenges of improving the quality of educational service delivery stemming from their role of being a platform for enhancing the school management skills of prospective teachers, and the demonstration of new teaching techniques towards the acceleration of student learning. The complex processes of determining and implementing school management policies is carried out by school management personnel, teachers and stakeholders. In this direction, organisational commitment, most significantly that of the teacher, is paramount to how effective laboratory schools can achieve their vision, mission and objectives. This quantitative study examines the pattern of relationships and the influence of the transformational leadership style and principals’ decision making on high school teachers’ organisational commitment at Jakarta laboratory schools. Research data was obtained by randomly administering questionnaires to a sample of eighty-nine (89) teachers. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics to provide detailed insight on the spread of research data and to facilitate the drawing of conclusions. The path analysis technique was used to determine the levels of influence between the transformational leadership style, the principals’ decision making and the teachers’ organisational commitment. Results from this study show that: (1) the transformational leadership style has a direct positive influence on high-school teachers’ organisational commitment at Jakarta laboratory schools; (2) the principals’ decision making has a direct positive influence on high-school teachers’ organisational commitment at Jakarta laboratory schools; and (3) the transformational leadership style has a direct positive influence on the principals’ decision making at Jakarta laboratory schools.


INTRODUCTION
Improving the quality of education and educational services is an integral component of the strategic plan of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture, which demands educational institutions at all levels to formulate and implement their vision, mission and goals in accordance with the nation's sustainable development plans (MoEC, 2016). Jakarta laboratory schools, which were initially inaugurated, are educational institutions for prospective teachers (LPTK); these institutions, while working towards improving their teaching practice, educational research, and educational innovation have, over the years, expanded their vision, mission and objectives to accommodate education service delivery at both primary and secondary school levels in an effort to make meaningful contributions in the areas of teaching and learning and national development (Nishimura, 1995). However, there is still a lot to be done if Jakarta laboratory schools are going to fulfil their ideal role. Rokhman et al. (2017) observe that the problems of Educational Personnel Institutions (LPTK) are not only linked to the teaching materials, research and the system, but also to the existence of lab schools, which have been less than ideal. lab schools, which are currently being managed by LPTK, so far have only been adjusting to market tastes and have not fully answered the basic needs or the fullest development of human resources (HR). Based on these shortcomings, Rokhman et al. (2017) recommended that specific elements should be put in place to enable lab schools to become ideal as they were intended in areas of school management, curriculum application, teaching methods, learning strategies and the improvement of the relationships between parents and stakeholders. The above underscores the importance of proper school management in which the teachers, as well as non-teaching employees, work in synergy towards the achievement of the lab school vision, mission and strategic objectives in line with broader laws within its environment.
The development of school vision and mission statements for the achievement of educational goals advocates the internal and external analysis process (O'Brien & Meadows, 2000). How well a school achieves its ideals, vision, mission and goals is sometimes contingent on both external and internal factors, such as the current focus of the country's national education policy, or the style of school leadership, decision-making processes within a school, and teachers organisational commitment in performing their assigned tasks. Teachers' organisational commitment has a significant impact in the achievement of educational goals (Aslamiah, 2019).
This research aims to explore the patterns of the relationship between transformational leadership style and principals' decision making on high-school teachers' organisational commitment towards proper school management and the realisation of set goals and the vision and mission of Jakarta laboratory schools.

Organisational Commitment
In the past two decades, organisational studies have largely focused on understanding organisational commitment, partly because of its connection with employee motivation, organisational change and development among others  (Allen & Meyer, 1990;Becker, 1992;Mowday et al.,2013). Mowday et al. (1979) believe that the idea of organisational commitment connotes a strong desire to remain a member of the organisation, a tendency to continue to support the realisation of an organisation's goals and interests, and a readiness to do more regarding work behaviours in support of organisational goals. Colquitt et al. (2015) note that organisational commitment is a willingness on the part of the individual to remain a member of an organisation. Baldwin et al. (2012) also note that organisational commitment is an attitude showing the extent to which an employee identifies with and continues to remain a member of an organisation. According to Newstrom (2014), organisational commitment shows the intensity to which an employee identifies with an organisation and continues to actively participate in it. George et al. (2005) highlight the notion that organisational commitment shows the emotional attachments and beliefs that employees have regarding their organisation as a whole; these can range from being very high to very low. Teachers' organisational commitment represents an obligation in which motivations toward the achievement of objectives and values of an organisation (school) stimulate efforts beyond normal expectations. In the context of implementing new teaching methods, teachers may encounter new and more demanding work requirements (Beijaard, 2005;Firestone & Pennell, 1993). Based on the different opinions about commitment to the organisation, teachers' organisational commitment, as utilised in this study, illustrates a dedication and active membership to the school through their contributions to achieving set objectives, the vision and the mission. Indicators of teachers' organisational commitment are: loyalty to the school, obedience to the school rules and regulations, active participation in school management and a strong attachment to being a member of the school.

Transformational Leadership Style
In contrast to transactional and laissez faire leadership styles, transformational leaders engage with their followers towards creating a relationship, which raises the morality and levels of motivation not only for the followers, but also for the leaders themselves (Burns, 1978). Hellriegel et al. (2011) note that transformational leadership involves foreseeing future trends, motivating followers to understand and embrace a new vision of possibilities, grooming others to becoming leaders or better leaders, and building the organisation or group into a community of challenged and rewarded learners. According to Avolio et al. (1999), at first, transformational leadership is shown through three behaviourscharisma, individualised consideration and intellectual stimulationbut in its development, behavioural charisma is divided into two, namely charisma or idealised influence and inspirational motivation. Schermerhorn et al. (2012) believe that transformational leadership occurs when the leader expands and raises followers' interests while encouraging followers to look beyond their selfinterest for the greater interest of the group. Daft (2015) notes that transformational leadership is different to transactional leadership in four areas: (1) transformational leadership develops followers into leaders; (2) transformational leadership raises followers' concerns from focusing more on physical needs, such as safety and security, to psychological needs, such as self-  (4) transformational leadership creates a vision of the future state and communicates it to its followers in a pattern that makes the transition and achievement of the vision acceptable. From the literature above, transformational leadership, as used in this study, refers to a teacher's assessment of the school principals' behaviour when working with other members to optimally empower organisational resources (facilities, funds, external factors of the organisation, human resources). They move towards the realisation of meaningful goals in accordance with predetermined achievement targets with indicators as follows: influencing people, inspiring people, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration.

Decision Making
According to Verma (2009), decision-making processes generally produce a final choice. It could be considered as an outcome of mental or cognitive processes, which lead to the selection of a course of action among a handful of available alternatives. Behl (2009) notes that decision making entails the process of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the criteria of the decision maker. Kinicki and Williams (2011) define decision making as the act of identifying or choosing between alternative courses of action in a manner appropriate to the demands of the situation. For George et al. (2012), decision making is the process by which members in an organisation select a clearly defined course of action to respond to both opportunities and problems. Based on the opinion of the experts as described above, the decision making used in this study refers to the teachers' opinions of the school principal in the process of choosing some of the best alternatives with indicators as follows: the identification of problems, the determination of various alternatives, the choosing of alternatives and the implementation of alternative decisions.

METHODS
This study used a survey research design with a quantitative-causal approach. This research approach was adopted to analyse the pattern of the relationships and to determine whether there exist direct or indirect influences between transformational leadership style (X1), the principal's decision making (X2), and the teachers' organisational commitment (X3). The transformational leadership style questionnaire had 33 valid items with responses scaled from 1 to 5 (a 5-point Likert scale). The items in the transformational leadership style questionnaire determined the extent to which a leader exhibits the ability to influence others, their ability to intellectually stimulate others and how they provide individual consideration, among others. The principals' decision-making questionnaire had 26 valid items to determine the their ability to identify a problem, determine various alternatives, choose between those alternatives and implement the best alternative. The teachers' organisational commitment questionnaire had 35 valid items to determine the extent to which a teacher showed loyalty to the school, obedience to the rules and regulations of the school, active participation in the school, and strong feelings of attachment to the school. The instruments used to obtain the research data were questionnaires, sampled after satisfying the validity and reliability test criteria. The validity for each variable instrument was tested using the assistance of an Microsoft Excel program, which investigated the correlation coefficients (Pearson Product Moment) between the questions with the total score of the answers. Degrees of freedom (df) were the number of samples minus 1 (n-1). The validity criterion of each research instrument was calculated by ascertaining whether the value of r ≥ rtable, with the critical value of 0.444 was at α = 0.05 significance level. That is, if the correlation value of each item instrument was under 0.444, then the item was considered not valid and was dropped from the questionnaire. The reliability of the instruments used in this study was calculated using the Cronbach Alpha formula, which aimed to determine the consistency and confidence levels of each instrument, first by testing it on a sample of 20% of the total population. For the teachers' organisational commitment, transformational leadership style and principal's decision making variables, the values obtained were 0.96 (96%), 0.93 (93%) and 0.94 (94%), respectively. Because a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of more than 70% is acceptable, we concluded that the research instruments were reliable and could be used to obtain the data. The population for this study comprised of 101 high-school teachers from Jakarta laboratory schools. A simple random sampling technique was used in the distribution of questionnaires to a sample of 89 teachers, which was calculated using the Slovin formula. The research data were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics to provide detailed insight into the spread of research data and enhance the drawing of conclusions. The path analysis technique was used to determine the levels of influence between transformational leadership style, principals' decision making and teachers' organisational commitment.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION
From data obtained in the field, which was first processed statistically in the form of a frequency distribution table, and according to Sturges rules, there were eight  According to Table I, the result from testing the first hypothesis revealed a path coefficient value of 0.505 and a t value of 6.944. The ttable value of α = 0.01 is at 2.35. Since the value of t is greater than the value ttable, then the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and the research hypothesis (H1) is confirmed, hence it can be argued and is acceptable to state that there is a direct positive influence of transformational leadership style on organisational commitment. Therefore, an increase in transformational leadership style will lead to an increase in teachers' organisational commitment in Jakarta laboratory schools. According to Table II, the results from testing the second hypothesis revealed a path coefficient value of 0.433 and a t value of 5,953. The ttable value of α = 0.01 is at 2.35. Since the value of t is greater than the value ttable, then the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and the research hypothesis (H1) is confirmed, hence it can be argued and is acceptable to state that there is a direct positive influence of principals' decision making on organisational commitment. Therefore, an increase in principals' decision making in the form of identifying problem, selecting alternatives and choosing best alternative results, will increase teachers' organisational commitment in Jakarta laboratory schools.