Analysis of the relationships between the authoritarian management style of school principals and teachers perceptions of organizational justice and organizational dissent

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between school principals' authoritarian management style and teachers' perceptions of organizational justice and organizational dissent. With this purpose, the relations between the research variables were investigated according to the created hypothetical model. The population of the research consists of 8989 teachers working in the schools affiliated to the Battalgazi and Yeşilyurt District National Education Directorates, which are the central districts of Malatya in the 2020-2021 academic year. The sample of the study consisted of 535 teachers determined by the quota sampling method from the schools in the population. The research is a quantitative method and was designed with a relational model. School principals management styles scale, organizational justice scale and organizational dissent scale were used as data collection tools in the research. In the study, a model that predicts direct and indirect effects has been proposed, considering the literature about teachers' perceptions of school principals' authoritarian management style, organizational justice and organizational dissent. In order to test this model, a path analysis study was carried out with the observed variables within the framework of structural equation modeling (SEM). As a result of the research, it was seen that 3 of the 10 determined hypotheses were rejected and 7 of them were accepted. Considering the prominent findings of the study, it was determined that the authoritarian management style of school principals was a direct and significant predictor of teachers' perceptions of organizational justice. Although there is a negative significant relationship between school principals' authoritarian management style and teachers' perceptions of articulated dissent, it has been determined that school principals' authoritarian management style is not a direct significant predictor of teachers' perceptions of articulated dissent. However, school principals' authoritarian management style predicts teachers' perceptions of antagonistic and displaced dissent positively and significantly. When the mediation effects in the research model were examined, it was concluded that organizational justice was a significant mediating variable in the relationship between school principals' authoritarian management style and teachers' perception of articulated dissent. In addition, organizational justice was found to be a significant mediating variable in the relationship between school principals' authoritarian management style and teachers' perception of antagonistic dissent. It was found that teachers working with school principals with authoritarian management style avoided the articulated dissent strategy and prefered to antagonistic and displaced dissent; however, it has been determined that if the authoritarian principal is fair, teachers can prefer the articulated dissent strategy. These results reveal the importance of organizational justice in the development of articulated dissent in schools. In this context, in order to further develop teachers' perceptions of organizational justice more, ethical standards that include the principles of justice, openness, impartiality, consistency, common interest, equality, objectivity and transparency should be determined in school management.