Investigation of organizational socialization and organizational silence levels of academics

The purpose of this study was to examine academics' perceptions of organizational socialization and organizational silence with regard to the variables of sex, academic title, professional seniority, the time span spent in that particular faculty/school and administrative function, and to reveal the relationship between academics' levels of organizational socialization and organizational silence. Single and relational screening model was applied in this descriptive study. The population of this study was 1605 academics working at Faculties of Sport Sciences and Schools of Physical Education and Sports in Turkey. In this study, convenience sampling was applied, and of these 1605, the sample included 410 academics. Data were collected through "Organizational Socialization Scale", "Organizational Silence Scale" and a "Personal Information Form" prepared by the researcher. SPSS 18 package program was used to analyze data. In the first stage, frequency and percentage distributions of participants' demographic characteristics, and means of scales used in this study were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Unpaired t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were applied in data analysis, and also Tukey was used in order to reveal the groups leading significant differences. In this study, the Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to analyze non-normally distributed data. Moreover, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used to find out the relationship between each scale. The level of significance was determined as p<0,05 and p<0,001. According to the results of this study, when total and sub-dimensions scores of scales were analyzed, academics' organizational socialization was observed high, and academics' organizational silence was low. Academics' perceptions of organizational socialization differed significantly with regard to the variables of academic title, professional seniority, the time span spent in that particular faculty/school and administrative function; furthermore, academics' perceptions of organizational silence differed significantly with regard to the variables of academic title, the time span spent in that particular faculty/school and administrative function. At sub-dimensions of professional competency and language-history, research assistants' perceptions of organizational socialization were lower than associate professors', assistant professors', teaching assistants' and lecturers'. When organizational socialization was examined regarding professional seniority and the time span spent in that particular faculty/school, there were statistically significant differences between total point, sub-dimensions of professional competency and language-history. At dimensions of school environment and the source of silence regarding levels of organizational silence, lecturers were the most silent group and professors are the least silent group. When academics' levels of organizational silence were examined regarding the time span spent in that particular faculty/school, there were statistically significant differences between total point and administrative function. Participants in administrative position showed high levels of organizational socialization and low levels of organizational silence. Consequently, the study reveals a negatively oriented relationship between academics' levels of organizational socialization and organizational silence.