Digital Leadership and Organizational Climate in Higher Vocational and Technical Colleges in Guangzhou, China: The Mediating Effects of Organizational Support on Teachers’ Work Performance
Keywords:
Digital leadership, Organizational climate, Organizational support, Teachers’ work performance, Higher vocational collegesAbstract
The ongoing digital transformation has significantly reshaped leadership practices and organizational environments in vocational education institutions in China. In major metropolitan areas such as Guangzhou, higher vocational and technical colleges are increasingly required to integrate digital technologies into teaching, institutional management, and teacher professional development. Within this context, digital leadership and organizational climate have emerged as critical determinants of teachers’ work performance. However, empirical evidence explaining how these organizational factors influence performance-particularly through organizational support mechanisms-remains limited in vocational education settings.This study aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of digital leadership and organizational climate on teachers’ work performance, with organizational support conceptualized as a mediating variable. A quantitative research design was employed using survey data collected from teachers in public higher vocational and technical colleges in Guangzhou, China. Stratified random sampling was used to ensure proportional representation across institutions. Data were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to validate the measurement model, followed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the hypothesized relationships.The results indicate that both digital leadership and organizational climate have significant positive direct effects on teachers’ work performance. In addition, organizational support was found to partially mediate the relationships between digital leadership and teachers’ work performance, as well as between organizational climate and teachers’ work performance.These findings suggest that leadership practices and organizational environments are more effective in enhancing teacher performance when they are translated into tangible and perceived institutional support. The study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the mediating role of organizational support and offers practical implications for strengthening digital leadership and support systems in vocational education.
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