Evaluating the relationships between school culture and conflict management styles of primary school administrators according to opinions of primary school teachers

The main aim of this study is to examine whether a relationship between the preferred conflict management style of school administrators and school culture exists and if so, defining the direction and level of this relationship. In accordance with the main goal of the study, it is also aimed to examine whether significant differences between teachers' demographic features such as gender, age, educational background, seniority, working years at the school and branch and their opinions about school culture and conflict management styles of administrators exist or not. The study has been designed as a relational screening model. Target population of the study consists of 1519 primary school teachers who work at general primary schools affiliated to the directorate of national education of Tepebasi and Odunpazari central counties in Eskisehir. To increase generalizability of results of the study, any sampling method wasn't used. The analysis were made with 831 data which gathered by data collection tools. To gather data, a data collection tool which was developed by the researcher, consisting of 3 sections was used. The first section of the data collection tool has the questions which were prepared to define the demographics of participant teachers according to the sub-goals of the study. Second and third section of the data gathering tool consists of "School Culture Scale" and "School Administrators' Conflict Management Scale" respectively. SPSS 22.0 packet program was used to analyze the data gathered by data collection tool. The data were analyzed by using independent sample t-test, one way ANOVA and Pearson correlation. Before applying statistical techniques, the assumptions of these techniques were investigated. Tukey multi-comparison analysis was used to define the differences detected between independent variable levels with the ANOVA. The results of the study are as the followings: According to the participant teachers, school administrators prefer to use democratic/compromising style rather than authoritarian/indifferent style. It is concluded that there's a significant difference between opinions of participant teachers related to school administrators' conflict management styles and their genders. It is seen that participant teachers have positive opinions on school culture and its sub-dimensions. It is concluded that there are significant differences between opinions of participant teachers related to school culture and their genders, working years at schools and branches. It is seen that there are negative, weak or moderate and significant relationships between the opinions of teachers on total and dimensions of the school culture scale and authoritarian/indifferent style. Also, it is seen that there are positive, moderate or strong and significant relationships between the opinions of teachers on total and dimensions of the school culture scale and democratic/compromising style.