The relationship between teachers' perceptions of power distance and their organizational silence

This study used an explanatory sequential mixed method design to investigate the association between organizational power distance perceptions and organizational silence behaviors among teachers in state high schools in Eskisehir's central districts. In the quantitative phase of the study, the Organizational Power Distance Scale and Organizational Silence Scale were administered to 354 teachers from 25 randomly selected high schools, and the results were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, measurement invariance test, and structural equation model. The model results revealed that power distance had a large and positive impact on both fear-based and hopelessness-based quiet. Then, throughout the qualitative phase, face-to-face and online semi-structured interviews were performed with eighteen instructors chosen using maximum variation sampling, and the data was analyzed using theme analysis in the MAXQDA24 environment. In this investigation, the inductive paradigm was used. According to the research findings, organizational silence in schools is mostly characterized by apathy and mobbing anxiety. As a result, micromanagement cultures and authoritarian leadership techniques in schools exacerbate the cycle of silence by repressing teachers' voices. As a consequence of the research, numerous options for solving these difficulties were incorporated in the recommendations made based on quantitative and qualitative findings.