Effect of school principals’ favouritism behaviors and attitudes on teachers’ organizational commitment, based on the perceptions of primary and secondary school teachers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is relation between the favouritism attitudes and behaviours of the school administrators and the organizational commitment of the teachers, based on the perceptions of the teachers. This is a correlational study using survey model. The study is in relational screening model. Research population contains 1219 teachers working in schools (27 of which are primary schools and 25 are secondary schools) in Siirt city centre in the 2014 and 2015 school year. In this research, favouritism scale developed by Aydoğan (2009) and consisting of 15 items and a sub-dimension, as well as the organisational commitment scale developed by Balay (2000) and consisting of three sub-dimensions as compliance, internalization and identification were applied. As a result of the research carried out, it was determined that the primary and secondary school teachers’ perceptions regarding the favouritism attitudes and behaviours of the school administrators are at low level. Moreover, teachers stated that they rarely agree with the items in the compliance subdimension of the organizational commitment, while they moderately agree with the items in the identification and internalization sub-dimensions. It was determined that based on the perceptions of the primary and secondary school teachers, there is a negative and medium level relation between the favouritism attitudes and behaviours of the school administrators, and the internalization and identification sub-dimensions of the organizational commitment. Moreover, a positive and low level relation was determined between the favouritism attitudes and behaviours of the school administrators, and the compliance sub-dimensions of the organizational commitment. Furthermore, it was concluded that the favouritism attitudes and behaviours of the school administrators significantly predict all sub-dimensions of the organizational commitment.