Examining the Mediating Role of School Culture on the Relationship between Transformational Leadership, Teacher Commitment and Organizational Change in Elementary School

: This study examines the mediating role of school culture on the relationship between transformational leadership, teacher commitment, and organizational change in elementary schools. This study used a quantitative Structural Equation Modeling approach to test the variable model. The subjects of this study were elementary school teachers in Surabaya city, with a total sample of 253. The research instrument used a 5 Likert scale and analyzed data using structural equation modeling. The results showed that transformational leadership and teacher commitment simultaneously and partially affect organizational change. Transformational leadership and teacher commitment also affect school culture. School culture played a role as a mediator in seeing the effect of teacher commitment on organizational change. Furthermore, school culture did not play a role as a mediator in measuring the effect of transformational leadership on organizational change


Introduction
Effective schools, in order to achieve high performance, start with a transformational leadership style relevant to the changing environment.Transformational leadership is one supporting model in a dynamic school environment to face constant change (Usman, 2020).Leaders' and teachers' commitment ensures the sustainability of learning experiences for students and the community framed by a conducive school culture-values, and practices.It approaches to accelerate school transformation to meet community demand for school-based learning services.Transformational leaders inspire followers to commit to the organization's vision and goals, stimulating followers to have an innovative mindset in solving problems and providing guidance and support to develop leadership skills (Bass & Riggio, 2006).Yuet (2017) considered commitment from the perspective of emotional attachment between employees and the organization.Teacher commitment has been identified as a key aspect to reform and upgrade school capacity.Current research shows that the capacity of schools to make sustainable transformations depends on teachers' commitment to change.The commitment that teachers have in the organization will have an effect in encouraging the organization to make changes.Changing is a difficult and demanding process for organizations.Armstrong (1992) defines change management from a process perspective that ensures the organization can make significant improvements in its culture, policies, structures, and systems.(Lunenburg, 2010) Organizational change is an effort from the The stages in data analysis using SEM are described in the following activities.

Model specification
The activity in this step is to develop a model of the relationship between transformational leadership, teacher commitment, school culture, and organizational change in the framework of theoretical review.This step creates the constructs to be investigated and determines their dimensionality.The direction of the hypothesized relationship must also be clear and have a theoretical basis.

Model Identification
This step is an important stage in SEM because models that are unable to be identified cannot be estimated or calculated.Ideally, the next step is to determine the sample size after the specification and identification of the model.

Model estimation
After the data is collected, the model is estimated, having previously determined the estimation method.Generally, the estimation method used is maximum likelihood (ML).

Model evaluation
The activity in this step is to evaluate and interpret the analysis results.This stage aims to evaluate the model as a whole.The first step in this process is to test the standard deviation of the data.The second step is to test the measurement model.It involves testing the confirmatory factors of the model to determine the validity and dependability of latent variables.The third stage is to test the structural model.Finally, the final step is to evaluate the overall fit by referring to goodness of fit.(GoF).Model modification This activity concerns the results of model evaluation and interpretation.If, based on the GoF, the model is invalid or has been invalidated, the model must be adjusted or re-arranged.

Results and Discussion
The indicator for determining whether a model is suitable to proceed to the next step is the analysis of the identification results, Structural modeling has three types of identification models: unidentifiable, just identified, and overidentified.The feasibility of the identification model can be attributed to the degree to which the model is over-identified with a positive degree of freedom, as discussed in Ghozali, 2011.In the above research processed using AMOS version 23, it states that the degrees of freedom are 204 or positive, so it can be stated that the model is overidentified and is eligible to continue to the next stage.At the structural model evaluation stage, there are several criteria that must be fulfilled, which are described below: 1) Sample size The total number of samples used in this study was 253, with this number included in SEM requirements with a maximum likelihood model estimate of 100 to 200 samples.

2) Confirmatory factor analysis
Standardized Regression Weights: (Group number 1 -Default model) In the table above, it can be seen that all indicators have an estimated loading factor value ≥0.50, it can be concluded that all indicators have described the variables being measured and are eligible for use in further tests.
3) SEM is highly dependent on the characteristics of the data distribution, particularly those that disrupt the multivariate normality of the data or are subject to high kurtosis.Therefore, SEM necessitates a multivariate normal distribution of the data.(Ghozali, 2005)).The AMOS output is subject to the normality test, which is conducted by comparing the Critical Ratio (CR) on an assessment of normality to the Critical ± 2.58 in the 0.01 range.If the CR is greater than the Critical, the distribution of the data is considered univariate.Conversely, multivariate data can be observed in the final row c.r, with the same conditions (Ghozali, 2011).Based on the table above, the univariate normality test shows that the majority of the data is normally distributed as the value of the critical ratio (c.r) for kurtosis and skewness is within the range of ± 2.58.While multivariate data meets normal assumptions due to the value of 1.578 which is in the range of -2.58 to +2.58.4) Assessing goodness-of-fit criteria After all SEM assumptions are fulfilled with various criteria, the next step is to conduct an overall model fit with various model fit assessment criteria.
There are three criteria listed as fit in the above Goodness of fit test results, which researchers refer to as the principle of "parsimony." by Arbukle and Worthe (1999) in Solimun ( 2004), namely if there are one or two criteria that have been met (fit) then the overall model can be said to be good or accepted.So, from this principle, the results of testing the structural equation model are accepted, and further analysis can be conducted.1) Hypothesis Testing The next stage is to test the hypothesis, and the hypothesis test in this study uses regression weights; the criteria for hypothesis testing refer to Ghozali (2011), who believes that if the critical ratio (CR) value> 1.96 and p-value with a comparison of the significance level (α = 5%) or <0.05 then the exogenous variable has an effect on the endogenous variable, but if CR <1.96 and p-value> 0.05 then the exogenous variable has no effect on the endogenous variable, CR with (***) three stars means a very low value of <0.001.
Regression Weights: (Group number 1 -Default model)  Based on the data analysis above, the first hypothesis in this study is accepted, which indicates that transformational leadership and teacher commitment simultaneously affect organizational change.Transformational leaders gain support, encourage and inspire followers, articulate the organization's vision, provide attention, and nurture satisfactory working relationships at school.A transformational leader in a school organization is expected to demonstrate authority and generate respect for his or her followers so that followers feel inspired to be involved and show high engagement in supporting the achievement of the school organization's goals.In this case, the effectiveness of transformational leadership will encourage increased organizational commitment of employees.Research by (Walumbwa et al., 2005) showed that transformational leadership positively relates to commitment.It is in line with the results of this study that good transformational leadership in schools and high teacher organizational commitment will impact organizational change.As a leader, the principal can provide encouragement and articulate the school's vision and mission well and supported by the commitment of teachers to bring the school to be better, which will create organizational changes in schools that are accelerating.Schools become more dynamic in facing changes and challenges from external factors if leaders can apply transformational leadership and teachers have high organizational commitment.

b) Transformational leadership directly affects organizational change
The second hypothesis in this study is also accepted, where transformational leadership directly affects organizational change.This result aligns with (Hussain et al., 2021) that Transformational leadership has a positive and significant relationship with organizational change.The results of this study provide a perspective on the importance of transformational leadership and organizational change, as the transformational leadership style can motivate teachers and involve followers to support changes made by leaders.Transformational leadership style describes individual perceptions regarding the frequency of change, change planning, and employee involvement in change.Based on the results of this study, significant results were obtained between transformational leadership and organizational change.Transformational leadership implemented in schools will directly impact bringing about changes in the organization.The changes made are frequently changes as well as planned changes.c) Teacher commitment directly affects organizational change.
The third hypothesis in this study shows that teacher commitment directly affects organizational change.It indicates that teacher commitment contributes to carrying out changes in schools.This research is also in line with the research of (Raman et al., 2015) which states that commitment to the organization is "a strong belief and acceptance of goals and values, readiness to work diligently to represent the organization and a clear desire to remain as a member of the organization."A school with dedicated teachers committed to the school will make it effective.An effective school in the current context is one that is adaptive and ready to bring changes so that the organization can run effectively and efficiently.

d) Transformational leadership affects school culture
The fourth hypothesis in this study states that transformational leadership affects school culture.The findings indicate that the principal's leadership contributes to organizational culture development.It aligns with the findings of research by (Ilmasari & Alhadi, 2019) that the principal plays an essential and significant role in developing school culture, as the principal is the "turn-key" in the decision-making process to achieve school objectives.In addition to this, the principal also provides information related to policies that have been taken regarding the school culture implemented in the organization.In transformational leadership, the principal will continue to make various efforts to create a conducive environment with fellow employees at school in carrying out their duties.Principals also consistently build harmonious communication relationships with all elements of the school organizational culture that can run and be implemented well to create a comfortable school environment.

e) Teacher commitment affects school culture
The fifth hypothesis in this study, based on the results of data analysis, is accepted, which shows that teacher commitment affects school culture.It is in line with the results of (Tobing et al., 2017); ), which show that teacher commitment related to work and organization can positively and significantly influence organizational culture.Teachers who commit highly to the organization will have a sense of responsibility, discipline, or compliance with applicable norms and habits applied at school.The attitudes of teachers, reflected in several aspects, will finally significantly affect the culture applied at school.The school's culture or environment will determine how well it works, especially when it comes to creativity and risk-taking, focus on details, results, people/personality, team dynamics, and stability.Teachers must demonstrate three types of commitment: affective, ongoing, and normative.The way teachers act or behave is an expression of affective involvement, which means they are proud to be a part of the community, follow the guidelines, and are committed to their role in the school.Continuation commitment is also reflected in the attitude or conduct of teachers who use their work environment to their advantage, making them feel they made the right choice to work at their school and are less likely to transfer to another school.On the other hand, the normative commitment is their dedication to work, even if they work after school, striving to contribute their ideas, energy, and time to the school's development.(Kozcu & Özmen, 2021).).In the context of the results of this study, culture does not mediate leaders in making organizational changes.In making changes, the principal's leadership can directly impact the organization.Moreover, organizational change in education is partially mediated by school culture (Kaur Bagga et al., 2023).This study also supports (Atasoy, 2020) that transformational leadership will positively contribute to school culture and strengthen school organizational change.g) Teacher commitment has an indirect effect on organizational change through school culture.
The seventh hypothesis in this study is that teacher commitment indirectly affects organizational change through school culture.This hypothesis is accepted because the direct standard estimate value is 0.150 < the indirect standard estimate value of 0.196.Thus, teacher commitment can affect organizational change through school culture.Teacher commitment indicated through affective, normative, and sustainable commitment will affect the implementation of culture in schools.A school culture that works well in schools will impact organizational change.This research supports (Kiral & Kacar, 2016) that normative commitment is predicted by support culture significantly (Sittar et al., 2019) mention a positive effect between teachers' career commitment and school culture.

Conclusion
The results of this study show that transformational leadership and teacher commitment have simultaneous and partial effects on organizational change.Transformational leadership and teacher commitment also affect school culture.School culture plays a role as a mediator in seeing the effect of teacher commitment on organizational change.Furthermore, school culture does not play a role as a mediator in measuring the effect of transformational leadership on organizational change.

Recommendation
From the results of this study, recommendations in addressing organizational change principals need to adopt a transformational leadership style, and school culture should be shaped more positively and improve teacher commitment.
f) Transformational leadership has an indirect effect on organizational change through school culture.The sixth research hypothesis states that transformational leadership indirectly affects organizational change through school culture.Based on the research analysis results, this hypothesis is rejected because of the direct estimate standard value of 0.215> indirect estimate standard value of 0.057.Transformational leadership does not have to influence school culture first in promoting organizational change.Organizational change can be influenced by leadership directly.Previous research shows the positive effect between transformational leadership and organizational change