The relation between 1

The relation between school leadership from a distributed perspective and teachers‟ organizational commitment. Examining the source of the leadership function. Purpose. In this study the relationship between school leadership and teachers‟ organizational commitment is examined by taking into account a distributed leadership perspective. The relation between teachers ‟ organizational commitment and teachers‟ perceptions of the quality and the source of the supportive and supervisory leadership function, participative decision-making, and the cooperation within the leadership team context variables are inquired. Research Methods. A survey was set up involving 1522 teachers from 46 large secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). Because the data in the present study have an inherent hierarchical structure, that is teachers are nested into schools, hierarchical linear modeling techniques are applied. Findings. The analyses reveal that 9 % of the variance in teachers ‟ organizational commitment is attributable to differences between schools. Teachers ‟ organizational commitment is mainly related to the quality of the supportive leadership, the cooperation within the leadership team, and participative decision-making. Who performed the supportive leadership function plays only a marginally significant positive role. The quality of the supervisory leadership function and the role of the leadership team members in this function were not significantly related to teachers ‟ organizational commitment. Implications. The implications of the findings are that in order to promote teachers‟ organizational commitment teachers should feel supported by their leadership team and that this leadership team should be characterized by group cohesion, role clarity, and goal orientedness. Recommendations for further research are provided. The relation between