The relationship between leadership attitudes and behaviors with union commitment and participation in activities: A field research in public education institutions in Sakarya

Trade unions are organizations that protect and develop the economic, social and professional rights and interests of employees. Leadership is the person who directs people towards a specific purpose and the leader is the person who affects people and directs them towards a common purpose. In terms of trade unions, the leader is defined as the person who respects the rights and interests of the members, supports their education and development, increases their loyalty to the union, ensures their participation in the activities and guides them in line with the aims of the union. In this study, it was aimed to determine the relationship between leadership attitudes and behaviors of workplace union representatives and members' union loyalty and participation in union activities. In this context, a study was conducted on teachers who are members of Eğitim Bir-Sen, Türk Eğitim-Sen and Eğitim-Sen unions in pre-school, primary, secondary and high schools working in public institutions in Sakarya. In this research, the relationship between leadership attitudes and behaviors of workplace union representatives and members' union loyalty and participation in activities were determined. In addition, the relationship between the personality characteristics of workplace union representatives and leadership attitudes and behaviors was revealed. Moreover, the leadership attitude and behavior perceptions of the workplace union representatives were compared with their leadership attitudes and behaviors. The questionnaire which was prepared for the purpose of the research was used as a data collection tool and questionnaires were applied through face-to-face interviews. 419 questionnaires were administered to 380 teachers and 39 trade union representatives. The obtained data were analyzed with SPSS 24.0 program. Frequency, mean, percentage, t-test, anova, factor analysis, correlation and simple regression analysis methods were used for data analysis. According to the results, there is a relationship between the personality characteristics of union representatives and leadership attitude and behavior characteristics. Leadership attitude and behavior characteristics of workplace union representatives and members' perceptions of leadership attitude and behavior characteristics of workplace union representatives were similar. It is revealed that leadership attitude and behavior characteristics of workplace union representatives are related to members' union commitment and participation in union activities.