The relationship of teachers' perceptions about the distributed leadership roles of administrators with organizational stress

This study was designed in mixed design to investigate the effect of distributed leadership on organizational stress in schools. The quantitative target population of the study consists of 660 teachers selected among 7003 teachers working in (primary and secondary schools) in Adıyaman province. The qualitative target population of the study consists of 14 teachers. "Distributed Leadership Inventory", "Organizational Stress Source Scale" and semi-structured interview forms were employed to gather the data. In the analysis of quantitative data, t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used. In order to determine the relationship between distributed leadership and organizational stress, correlation analysis was conducted. In the analysis of qualitative data, descriptive content analysis technique was used. The findings of the study revealed that, according to the perceptions of the teachers participating in the study, school principals demonstrated distributed leadership behaviors at a high level. It is observed that there is a significant difference in distributed leadership perceptions according to age, branch, seniority, and the number of teachers working in the school. It has been found that teachers working in schools experience moderate levels of stress according to their perceptions. There is a significant difference between the variables of gender, age, seniority, educational background, and number of teachers in the school in organizational stress perceptions. A low-level negative significant relationship was observed between perceptions of distributed leadership and perception of organizational stress. Based on the analysis of the qualitative data of the study, it is revealed that teachers experienced stress in the sub-themes of compulsory project tasks, insufficient salary, insufficient teacher authority, negative attitudes and behaviors of the school principal, and gossip. Keywords: Leadership; Distributed leadership; Stress; Organizational stress