THE PRINCIPAL'S VISIONARY LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT IN DEVELOPING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN PIDIE REGENCY

Abstract

The success of educational transformation is strongly influenced by the ability of school leaders to establish a sustainable organizational culture through effective leadership and teachers' organizational commitment. However, many madrasahs continue to experience challenges in translating visionary leadership into collaborative practices that foster innovation, professional commitment, and continuous school improvement. This study aims to explore how visionary leadership contributes to the development of organizational culture by strengthening teachers' organizational commitment in public madrasahs in Pidie Regency, Aceh, Indonesia. Employing a qualitative case study design, the research involved school principals, vice principals, teachers, school supervisors, administrative staff, and school committee members selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis and analyzed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña. The findings reveal that visionary leadership plays a crucial role in communicating a shared vision, promoting collaborative decision-making, providing continuous academic supervision, and creating a supportive learning environment that enhances teachers' affective and normative organizational commitment. Strengthened organizational commitment subsequently encourages professional collaboration, instructional innovation, collective responsibility, and the internalization of shared values, which collectively contribute to the establishment of a sustainable organizational culture. The study further demonstrates that organizational culture develops through continuous social interaction, exemplary leadership, and shared meaning-making rather than through administrative regulations alone. These findings contribute to the literature on educational leadership by proposing that teachers' organizational commitment functions as a mediating mechanism linking visionary leadership to organizational culture. The study also offers practical implications for policymakers, school supervisors, and educational leaders in designing leadership development programs that strengthen organizational capacity and sustain educational quality improvement in the context of ongoing educational reform