<![CDATA[Teacher work commitment is central to school functioning because it reflects teachers’ willingness to sustain professional effort and contribute to organizational goals. This study examined the direct and indirect relationships among principals’ transformational leadership, teachers’ work ethic, school climate, and teacher work commitment in public elementary schools in Belawang District, Barito Kuala Regency, Indonesia. A quantitative explanatory, cross-sectional survey design was used. The population comprised 118 teachers, of whom 88 were selected through proportional random sampling. Data were collected using five-point Likert-scale questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics, assumption testing, multiple regression, and path analysis. The findings show that transformational leadership was rated very high, whereas work ethic, school climate, and teacher work commitment were rated high. In the path model, transformational leadership was positively associated with teacher work commitment (β = .176), work ethic was positively associated with teacher work commitment (β = .169), and school climate showed the strongest direct association with teacher work commitment (β = .641). Transformational leadership was also positively associated with school climate (β = .567), while work ethic showed a positive association with school climate (β = .893). The reported indirect effects of transformational leadership and work ethic on teacher work commitment through school climate were .363 and .572, respectively. The final regression model explained 82.9% of the variance in teacher work commitment. These findings indicate that leadership and individual work orientation operate within a school-level relational context. Because the design is cross-sectional, the reported paths should be interpreted as statistical associations and indirect effects rather than definitive causal effects.]]>
