The effects of autonomy gap in personnel policy, principal leadership and teachers’ self-efficacy on their organizational commitment

School autonomy in personnel policy is important to effective personnel management. With increased autonomy in personnel policy, principals could wield their leadership to improve teachers’ organizational commitment. However, little is known about whether the given autonomy in personnel policy meets principals’ expectation and whether and how the gap in between has an effect on teachers’ organizational commitment. This research explores the effects of autonomy gap in personnel policy, principal leadership, teachers’ self-efficacy and school contextual factors on teachers’ organizational commitment. Multilevel analysis was used. The results show the effects of autonomy gap in personnel policy differ among areas. In particular, the autonomy gap in salary was found to be a significant antecedent of teachers’ organizational commitment. The results also highlight the importance of principal leadership in this process. Principals with a stronger leadership tend to perceive generally a larger autonomy gap in personnel policy. In addition, when transformational leadership increased, its positive influence on teachers’ organizational commitment became even stronger. Implications for developing efficacious leadership and autonomy policy in personnel management were discussed.