The relationship between creative leadership characteristics of school principals and error management culture

This study aims to examine the relationship between the creative leadership characteristics of school principals and error management culture according to the opinions of teachers working in public secondary schools in Edirne province. In addition, the opinions of school principals regarding the creative leadership characteristics and error management culture in schools were determined in this study. For this purpose, an explanatory design from mixed method research was used by using both quantitative and qualitative data. The target universe of the quantitative dimension of the study consisted of 1345 teachers working in public secondary schools located in nine districts of Edirne province. Simple random sampling method was used in sample selection. Criterion sampling from purposeful sampling methods was used in the qualitative part. In this context, 366 secondary school teachers and 14 school administrators were included in the study. The quantitative data of the study were collected by hand by going to secondary education institutions. The ''School Administrators' Creative Leadership Characteristics Scale'' (Uçar and Sağlam, 2019) (Appendix 2) and ''Error Management Culture Scale'' (Kurum, 2022) (Appendix 3) were used in the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the data analysis and the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated. Qualitative data were collected through face-to-face interviews. A semi-structured interview form was used during the interviews. Within the scope of creative leadership characteristics that school principals should have, proactive, entrepreneurial, effective communication skills, risk-taking, open to innovation and change, and cooperation have come to the fore. Whether these characteristics are present or not should be predicted in the selection and placement of school principals, and educational administrators should be selected and assigned from among those who have competence in this field. While the views of school principals regarding creative leadership characteristics and error management culture in schools did not show any significant difference according to gender, branch, and level of education, they showed significant differences in favor of Science High School principals according to the type of school they worked at The sub-dimensions of the creative leadership characteristics of school principals; While there is a high level of positive relationship between entrepreneurship and effective communication, openness to innovation and change, and error management culture in schools, there is a moderate relationship between the difference dimension and the error management culture. Teachers stated that school principals have taken the necessary measures to prevent the repetition of mistakes made by the school administration regarding the culture of error management in schools. It is possible to say that this makes it necessary for school administrators to actively use proactive leadership qualities from creative leadership features. In the qualitative dimension of the research, errors were defined by all managers as unintentional events that disrupt the functioning of the institutional culture. Errors encountered in the school were also stated by managers as communication errors, errors originating from personality traits, poor communication with the management, errors related to the use of financial resources and physical facilities, errors related to bureaucratic work and procedures, errors made in the education and training process, errors originating from the behavior of the personnel, errors made in occupational health and safety. It was observed that the source of errors was generally due to not caring about the work. The strategies they used in the error management culture process were as follows: creating complaint boxes, applying surveys to employees, and establishing verbal communication.