Examination of relationships among organizational trust, collective efficacy perceptions and organizational mindfulness levels of teachers

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships among organizational trust, collective efficacy perceptions and organizational mindfulness levels of teachers and to identify whether the perceptions of primary school teachers regarding organizational trust and collective efficacy perceptions change according to variables such as gender, age, seniority, field, educational level, working time in this school, working time with principal in this school, do master degree in educational science. The universe of the study was formed of primary schools and school teachers working in Istanbul European Side during the 2012-2013 educational year and the sample of the study consisted of 101 primary schools and 1760 teachers. The sample was chosen through stratified sampling. "Personal Information Form", "Organizational Trust Scale", "Collective Efficacy Scale" and "School Mindfulness Scale" were used as data collection tools in the study. SPSS 20.00 programs were used in analysis of the data. Arithmetic means and standard deviation values obtained from scales were utilized in identifying the levels of organizational trust, collective efficacy and school mindfulness. In order to determine whether there was a meaningful relationship between the demographic variables and organizational trust and collective efficacy Independent Sample t-Test and One Way ANOVA techniques were applied. The relationship among organizational trust, collective efficacy and school mindfulness was tested by Pearson Moments Product Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis. The results of the analysis displayed a significance level of p<.05. The results of the research identified that teachers in the study selected "Somewhat Agree" towards organizational trust, collective efficacy and school mindfulness and in all dimensions. The perceptions of teachers regarding the organizational trust showed significant differences according to gender variable in openness to innovation and communication atmosphere dimensions whereas these perceptions showed statistical significant differences according to age and seniority variable in trust to principal dimension. The perceptions of primary school teachers regarding organizational trust were not found to be statistically meaningful in any dimensions according to the variables of educational level, working time in this school, working time with principal in this school. In terms of field variable, statistically meaningful difference in teacher perceptions related to organizational trust was found in openness to innovation and sensitivity to personnel dimension. In terms of do master degree in educational science variable statistically meaningful difference in teacher perceptions related to organizational trust was found in all dimensions. The perceptions of teachers regarding the collective efficacy showed statistical significant differences according to gender, age, seniority, field, educational level, working time in this school, do master degree in educational science variables. In terms of working time with principal in this school variable meaningful difference in teacher perceptions related to collective efficacy was not. Positive and significant correlations were found towards principal mindfulness, teacher mindfulness and school mindfulness with organizational trust and collective efficacy. Regression analyzes revealed that teacher mindfulness was positively predicted from openness to innovation and trust to principal dimensions and school mindfulness was positively predicted from openness to innovation dimension.