Trust-Based Leadership and The Effectiveness of Decision-Making in State Islamic Junior Secondary Schools: a Multi-Site Phenomenological Study in Jambi, Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59890/ijels.v4i7.32Keywords:
Teacher Trust, School Leadership, Decision-Making Effectiveness, Madrasah, Comprehensive Trust, Phenomenology, Indonesia.Abstract
Teacher trust in school leadership is widely regarded as a precondition for sound institutional decision-making, yet the mechanism through which trust translates into decision-making effectiveness remains under-theorised in Islamic-school (madrasah) settings. This study examines how teacher trust in the principal shapes the effectiveness of decision-making across three State Islamic Junior Secondary Schools (Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri / MTsN) in Jambi Province, Indonesia. Adopting a qualitative, multi-site phenomenological design, data were generated through participant observation, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and documentary study involving principals, teachers, and administrative staff, and analysed using the interactive model of data condensation, display, and verification. Trustworthiness was secured through prolonged engagement, persistent observation, and source, method, theory, and time triangulation. The analysis integrates the five-faces-of-trust framework, the team-effectiveness model that positions a climate of trust as the most fundamental contextual element, and the ability–benevolence–integrity model of trustworthiness. Findings reveal a participative–transformational decision-making pattern in which trust operates as the principal mediator between leadership practice and decision quality through five interlocking mechanisms. The study advances a comprehensive-trust construct that fuses rational and relational trust, identifies visibility as a sixth, context-sensitive face of trust, and formalises a self-reinforcing trust-based leadership loop. A counter-intuitive contribution is that leadership.
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