The moderator role of organizational policy between leadership styles and organizational silence: A research in public institutions

Leadership has become an important concept for individuals who are willing to live together, since the first ages of history. Through human history; many leaders stand out with personal traits, knowledge, skill levels or values that the society has placed on them. While the needs of the leaders in the early ages were more limited, the knowledge, skills and talent levels that the leaders should have increased in today's increasingly competitive environment. A lot of studies have been conducted about the personal characteristics of the leader, the behaviors they exhibit or the values and meanings that societies place on the them. These studies have tried to determine the characteristics and behaviors required for leadership. An important feature of the leadership is its capacity to influence employee movements. The leaders influence their followers through the way they act. It is considered that the public employees behaviors are affected to a great extent by the organizational climate and the leadership styles of the managers. While the existence of an organizational climate, that encourage to voice the working ideas and libertarian, and the managers that support this climate, encourages public employees to express their creative and innovative views and ideas for the organization; in the visa versa situations the organizational climate and managers' management styles cause employees to keep their innovative and creative ideas. In this context, it is evaluated that organizational silence behavior of public employees is influenced by leadership styles of managers. It is considered that the organizational policy, that dominates the organization, has a regulatory effect on the relationship between the leadership style perceived by the employees and the organizational silence they exhibit. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the role of organizational policy in the relationship between leadership style and organizational silence. It is aimed to reveal whether the leadership style of the managers affect the organizational silence, that the public employees exhibit, and accordingly whether the organizational policy perception of the public employees has a moderator role in the relationship between these two variables. In this study, it is considered that the relationship between leadership style and organizational silence behavior can vary through organizational policy. In addition, it will be investigated whether there are any differences between the existing variables according to the demographic characteristics of the participants. This study consists of three parts. In the first chapter the importance, purpose, assumptions and limitations of the study are explained. In the second part, theoretical information about leadership styles, organizational silence and organizational policy concepts are given and their causes and consequences are mentioned. As a result of the correlation analysis conducted in the last part of the study, significant relationships were found between leadership styles and organizational silence. As a result of the hierarchical regression analysis conducted later, it was found that organizational policy plays a regulatory role in the relationship between leadership styles and organizational silence. In addition, when the relationship between demographic variables and leadership styles, organizational silence and organizational policy perception is examined, it is seen that age, level of education and working time are partially different, however, it was determined that it did not differ in terms of gender variable. Later, the validity of the relationships determined by correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis was confirmed by structural equation modeling. Finally, the results of the analysis are evaluated. Key Words: Transformational Leadership, Transactional Leadership, Laissez-faire Leadership, Organizational Silence, Organizational Policy