Examining the relationship between practices of strategic planning and organizational communication in primary schools

The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between organizational communication and practices of strategic planning in schools in line with the primary school teachers' opinions. With this purpose, firstly, opinions of teachers related to organizational communication and practices of strategic planning and after whether teachers' opinions differ according to variables such as teachers' seniority, length of service at the school where teachers work and length of service with the principal teachers work with. Lastly, the relationship between organizational communication and practices of strategic planning and the predictive power of organizational communication for practices of strategic planning were examined. The sample of the study was consisted of 380 teachers who were selected through random sampling method among the teachers working in the central districts of Gaziantep province. Data of the study were collected through the scales related to the organizational communication and the strategic planning practices in primary schools. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey's HSD multiple comparison test and independent samples T-test were applied in order to analyse the data. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r) was calculated to analyse the relationship between the organizational communication and practices of strategic planning and the linear regression analysis was performed to examine the predictive power of organizational communication for practices of strategic planning. According to the findings of the study, there are significant differences in teachers' opinions about organizational communication and practices of strategic planning according to seniority of teachers. There is a significant relationship between organizational communication and practices of strategic planning in schools and organizational communication is a significant predictor of the practices of strategic planning in schools. Based on the results of the study, it is suggested that communication processes should be strengthened in schools in order to carry out practices of strategic planning effectively. Keywords: Organizational Communication, Strategic Planning, Primary Schools