HED4812
Assignment 2
2026
, HED4812 – Assignment 2 (2026)
Based on: Dedering, K. & Pietsch, M. (2025). School leader trust and collective teacher
innovativeness:
on individual and organisational ambidexterity's mediating role. Educational Review,
77(2), 351–380.
Module: HED4812 | Total Marks: 100
Scenario
As a leader in the article, the principal as a leader is managing a school surrounded by
an environment of constantly changing social, technological, and natural conditions.
Today's schools must dynamically improve and adapt to these conditions in order to
survive. In this context, school leaders play an important role as the main drivers of
innovation and change in education, trusting their team of teachers, and encouraging
teachers' innovativeness. Against this background, the study highlights the importance of
creating an innovative working climate characterised by trust and experimentation. The
study examined the effect of school leader trust in teachers on teachers' collective
innovativeness as a prerequisite for school improvement and change, and the mediating
role of individual and organisational exploration and exploitation as components of
ambidexterity.
Question 1 [15 Marks]
How does school leader trust directly influence collective teacher innovativeness
in fostering school improvement?
Answer
Introduction
Trust is a foundational element of effective school leadership and organisational health.
In their study, Dedering and Pietsch (2025) established that school leader trust in
teachers has a significant direct relationship with collective teacher innovativeness,
, accounting for 85.4% of the total trust effect on innovativeness as a direct (rather than
mediated) pathway. The standardised path coefficient was β = .456 (SE = .053, p < .001),
making it the strongest single predictor in the structural equation model. Understanding
this direct relationship is essential for school improvement theory and practice.
Defining School Leader Trust
Dedering and Pietsch (2025), drawing on Mayer et al. (1995) and Busco et al. (2006),
conceptualise trust as a risky engagement where the trustor (the school leader) extends
willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of the trustee (teachers) in the expectation that
teachers will act in ways important to the leader, regardless of the leader's ability to
monitor or control those actions. Trust in the educational context is multidimensional,
encompassing four key dimensions: benevolence (belief that teachers care about the
school's future), competence (confidence in teachers' professional abilities), honesty
(openness and truthfulness), and integrity (keeping of promises). These dimensions were
operationalised using a four-item Likert scale with strong reliability (McDonald's omega ω
= 0.87).
Mechanisms of Direct Influence
The direct influence of school leader trust on collective teacher innovativeness operates
through several interrelated mechanisms:
1. Creating a Psychologically Safe Environment: When school leaders express
genuine trust in their teachers, they signal that risk-taking is valued and supported.
Edmondson et al. (2001) demonstrated that the more leaders focus on discipline and
control, the less they are perceived as supportive of risk-taking, thereby inhibiting learning
and innovation. Conversely, trust-based environments enable teachers to experiment
with new pedagogical approaches without the fear of punitive consequences for failure.
This psychological safety is the precondition for innovation.
Assignment 2
2026
, HED4812 – Assignment 2 (2026)
Based on: Dedering, K. & Pietsch, M. (2025). School leader trust and collective teacher
innovativeness:
on individual and organisational ambidexterity's mediating role. Educational Review,
77(2), 351–380.
Module: HED4812 | Total Marks: 100
Scenario
As a leader in the article, the principal as a leader is managing a school surrounded by
an environment of constantly changing social, technological, and natural conditions.
Today's schools must dynamically improve and adapt to these conditions in order to
survive. In this context, school leaders play an important role as the main drivers of
innovation and change in education, trusting their team of teachers, and encouraging
teachers' innovativeness. Against this background, the study highlights the importance of
creating an innovative working climate characterised by trust and experimentation. The
study examined the effect of school leader trust in teachers on teachers' collective
innovativeness as a prerequisite for school improvement and change, and the mediating
role of individual and organisational exploration and exploitation as components of
ambidexterity.
Question 1 [15 Marks]
How does school leader trust directly influence collective teacher innovativeness
in fostering school improvement?
Answer
Introduction
Trust is a foundational element of effective school leadership and organisational health.
In their study, Dedering and Pietsch (2025) established that school leader trust in
teachers has a significant direct relationship with collective teacher innovativeness,
, accounting for 85.4% of the total trust effect on innovativeness as a direct (rather than
mediated) pathway. The standardised path coefficient was β = .456 (SE = .053, p < .001),
making it the strongest single predictor in the structural equation model. Understanding
this direct relationship is essential for school improvement theory and practice.
Defining School Leader Trust
Dedering and Pietsch (2025), drawing on Mayer et al. (1995) and Busco et al. (2006),
conceptualise trust as a risky engagement where the trustor (the school leader) extends
willingness to be vulnerable to the actions of the trustee (teachers) in the expectation that
teachers will act in ways important to the leader, regardless of the leader's ability to
monitor or control those actions. Trust in the educational context is multidimensional,
encompassing four key dimensions: benevolence (belief that teachers care about the
school's future), competence (confidence in teachers' professional abilities), honesty
(openness and truthfulness), and integrity (keeping of promises). These dimensions were
operationalised using a four-item Likert scale with strong reliability (McDonald's omega ω
= 0.87).
Mechanisms of Direct Influence
The direct influence of school leader trust on collective teacher innovativeness operates
through several interrelated mechanisms:
1. Creating a Psychologically Safe Environment: When school leaders express
genuine trust in their teachers, they signal that risk-taking is valued and supported.
Edmondson et al. (2001) demonstrated that the more leaders focus on discipline and
control, the less they are perceived as supportive of risk-taking, thereby inhibiting learning
and innovation. Conversely, trust-based environments enable teachers to experiment
with new pedagogical approaches without the fear of punitive consequences for failure.
This psychological safety is the precondition for innovation.
