Examining the relationship between organizational silence and teachers' emotional intelligence levels

The purpose of this research is to determine teachers' perceptions of emotional intelligence and perceptions of organizational silence, and to examine the relationship between them. The research employed a relational (correlational) research model, which is one of the quantitative research methods. The population of the study consists of 4,369 teachers working in public primary and secondary schools in the Etimesgut district of Ankara in the 2023-2024 academic year. The "convenient sampling" method was used in the study, and data were collected from 361 teachers. The "Rotterdam Emotional Intelligence Scale," developed by Pekaar, Bakker, Linden, and Born (2017) and adapted to Turkish culture and the Turkish language by Tanrıöğen and Türker in 2019, as well as the "Organizational Silence Scale" developed by Kahveci and Demirtaş (2013), were used for data collection. For the statistical analysis of the data, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey test, and Pearson correlation tests were employed. According to the research findings, teachers perceive emotional intelligence and organizational silence at a "high" level. The emotional intelligence levels of teachers do not differ according to the variables of gender, educational status, professional seniority, age, and the duration spent in their institution. Only with respect to the educational level variable, in the sub-dimension of "Assessment of Others' Emotions," the average score of teachers working in primary schools is higher than that of teachers working in secondary schools. It was determined that the levels of organizational silence among teachers did not differ according to gender, educational status, and the duration spent in their institution; however, significant differences were found according to the variables of professional seniority, age, and educational level. Accordingly, it was found that teachers with 11-15 years of seniority remained significantly quieter than teachers with 20-30 years of seniority. Regarding age, when examining the overall scores from the organizational silence scale, it was observed that the level of organizational silence among teachers aged 50 and over was significantly lower than those in the 21-30 age group, 31-40 age group, and 41-50 age group. According to the educational level variable, it was determined that the silence levels of primary school teachers were significantly lower than those of secondary school teachers in the overall organizational silence and all its sub-dimensions. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that there is no significant relationship between the emotional intelligence levels of teachers and their levels of organizational silence. It was determined that there is a statistically significant positive but low-level relationship between the "Control of Others' Emotions" dimension in the Rotterdam Emotional Intelligence Scale and the dimensions of "School Environment," "Emotion," "Source of Silence," and "Isolation" in the Organizational Silence Scale. Based on the findings of the research, recommendations were made.