School administrators ' ability to manage emotions in coping with resistance in the process of change

The aim of this research is to determine the competence of school administrators working in public primary and secondary schools within Uşak province to manage emotions in relieving the resistance in the process of change by taking the view of teachers. At the same time, it was aimed to determine whether teachers ' ability to manage emotions in relieving resistance in the process of change differ significantly according to gender, seniority and field type variables. The universe of research consists of 1610 teachers working in 65 public primary and secondary schools in the Uşak centre, in the 2016-2017 academic year. A sample of the research consists of 300 teachers working in public primary and secondary schools in the Uşak centre. In order to collect the necessary data on the proficiency levels of teachers and school administrators in the process of change in schools, a 'scale of competencies for eliminating resistance in the process of Change' developed by the researchers was applied. The scale has three sub-dimensions and contains a total of 25 items of Type 5 likert. The analysis of the collected data was carried out in the SPSS package program. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test and ANOVA test were used in the analyses. According to the findings, it is observed that school administrators have low levels of proficiency in managing emotions in relieving resistance at the beginning of the change; moderate at the implementation stage of the change; and moderate at the end of the change. This level is moderate when the total capacity to manage emotions is examined in order to eliminate the resistance in the process of change in schools. In the process of eliminating resistance, it was determined that the competence of school administrators to manage emotions at the beginning of the change differ significantly according to gender, seniority and area. Key Words: emotion management, resistance in change, school administrators