The analysis of the relationship between organizational silence and leadership styles of school principals based on teacher perceptions

In this study, it was aimed to determine the relationship between organizational silence and autocratic, democratic, laissez faire, transformational and interactionist leadership styles according to the views of teachers. In the sub-problems of the study, the teachers' perceptions of the leadership style behaviors of the school principals, the level of silence behavior of the teachers, the direction and the power of the relationship between leadership styles and organizational silence behavior were examined. The population of the study consisted of 12,987 teachers working in 13 districts of Malatya province in 2017-2018 academic year. The sample is composed of 282 primary schools, 277 secondary schools and 293 high schools in the district centers and villages of Malatya. The data of the study were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. The obtained data are summarized with percentage and frequency tables and analyzes and evaluations have been made by using statistical package program. The data were tested by Kolmogorov - Smirnov test and the assumption was made that the data were distributed normally. Therefore, the data were analyzed by independent samples t test and one-way ANOVA from parametric tests. Kruskal Wallis test was used in the groups which did not show normal distribution. In addition, multiple linear regression analysis was conducted to determine the direction and strength of the relationship between organizational silence and autocratic, democratic, laissez faire, transformational and interactionist leadership styles exhibited by school principals. The error level was accepted as .05. Teachers evaluated the fact that school principals exhibited authoritarian and laissez faire leadership style behaviors ( =2,28) ve ( =2,49) from their leadership styles at the level of "Partially Agree", and exhibited their behaviors of democratic, transformational and interactive leadership styles ( =3,33), ( =3,29) and ( =2,96) at the level of "Medium level Agree". Again, according to the average of the answers of the teachers ( =3,81), it can be said that the teachers displayed silence behavior rather than expressing their opinions and suggestions in the face of the situations occurring in their schools.