Between principals’ and a teacher’s perspective taking: the role of transformational and transactional leadership styles

Using a social cognition framework and based on leadership style theory, the current research examines whether principals’ perspective taking as a complex cognitive process (consisting of two dimensions—empathy and positive attribution) toward main stakeholders affects teachers’ assessment of their leadership style, which in turn may affect an individual teacher’s perspective taking. I further examine the indirect effects of principals’ perspective taking on a teacher’s perspective taking through the effect of transformational leadership style. Participants were 1315 teachers and 105 principals from 105 Israeli elementary schools. Using multilevel structural equation modeling and different data sources, it was found that principals’ perspective taking only promotes a teacher’s perspective taking through the effect of transformational leadership style. Furthermore, only the dimension of principals’ positive attribution was related to transactional leadership style, while the latter was not related to a teacher’s perspective taking. Theoretical and practical implications for the effects of leaders’ cognitive attributes on an individual teacher are discussed.