Distributed Leadership and Organisational Commitment of Teachers in Senior Secondary Schools in Lagos State

This study empirically investigates the relationship between distributed leadership practices and teachers' organisational commitment in senior secondary schools in Lagos State, South West Nigeria. Distributed leadership, which involves the deliberate dispersal of leadership functions across multiple actors within a school, has been advanced as an alternative to hierarchical school administration with the potential to improve teacher engagement and institutional cohesion. Despite growing theoretical interest in distributed leadership, empirical evidence from Nigerian school contexts remains limited, creating a significant gap in the literature. The study employs a correlational survey design and draws a sample of 360 teachers from 45 senior secondary schools across Lagos, Ikeja, and Badagry education districts using multi-stage sampling. Validated instruments measuring distributed leadership and the Three-Component Model of organisational commitment are administered, and data are analysed using structural equation modelling. The study contributes to the literature by testing the applicability of distributed leadership theory to the Nigerian secondary school context, where hierarchical administrative traditions remain dominant. Findings reveal that dimensions of distributed leadership, particularly collaborative decision-making and shared instructional leadership, are significant positive predictors of affective and normative commitment among teachers. The study recommends the systematic reorientation of secondary school administration in Lagos State towards distributed leadership through targeted principal development interventions. Keywords: distributed leadership, organisational commitment, teacher engagement, secondary schools, Lagos State.