Headmasters’ HRM Practices, Teacher Commitment, and Student Development in Tamil National Type Primary Schools: Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Survey in Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur

Abstract

This study investigates the relationships among headmasters’ human resource management (HRM) practices, teacher commitment, and students’ holistic development encompassing academic, co-curricular, and character domains in Tamil national-type primary schools (SJK(T)) in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. The study utilized validated instruments, specifically the Human Resource Management Practices Questionnaire (adapted from [insert main HRM instrument source/author], focusing on subscales like staff development and reward systems), the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), and the Student Holistic Development Scale (SHDS). Importantly, the data for student development represented teacher perceptions of student outcomes, not objective student scores. These findings strongly suggest that supportive HRM practices implemented by headmasters enhance teacher commitment, and this enhanced commitment, in turn, fosters greater student growth across academic and personal domains. Furthermore, the correlation and regression results conceptually support the perspective that teacher commitment potentially acts as a key mediating mechanism through which headmasters' HRM practices influence student outcomes. The results underscore the critical importance of effective leadership and HRM competencies in strengthening overall school outcomes, with particular implications for policy, leadership training, and practice in minority-language schools. Future research should adopt longitudinal and mixed-methods designs across diverse educational contexts to further validate and extend these insights, specifically to test the hypothesized mediating role of teacher commitment.