Factors Affecting Work Performance During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study from Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of the principal’s democratic leadership style, teacher competency, work discipline, and work environment on teacher performance during the pandemic. Using the proportional random sampling strategy, a sample of 468 respondents consisted of kindergarten teachers, elementary school teachers, junior high school teachers, junior high school teachers, and high school/vocational school teachers. The study revealed that the principal’s democratic leadership style, teacher competence, work discipline, and work environment substantially impact teacher performance. However, the principal’s democratic leadership style does not affect teacher performance, whereas teacher competence, work discipline, and work environment have a minor impact on teacher performance. Furthermore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, work discipline is the most critical variable influencing teacher performance. The findings of this study suggest that the principal’s democratic leadership style, teacher competence, work discipline, and work environment have a positive impact on teacher performance during the pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, work discipline is the most important variable influencing teacher performance. Considering that democratic leadership has no effect on teacher performance and that this leadership style is widely used by school principals in the world of education, it is assumed that there is no effect on teacher performance.