The effect of transformational leadership behaviours of school managers on teachers' perceptions of individual innovativeness

The aim of this study is to determine whether transformational leadership behaviors of school administrators are a significant predictor of individual innovativeness perception of teachers based on the perceptions of teachers working in official primary schools. The population of the research was composed of 1037 teachers working in official primary schools affiliated to Üsküdar District Directorate of National Education in Istanbul in 2018-2019 academic year. 426 teachers submitted their completed scales. Scanning model, which is one of quantitative research methods, was used in the study. A data collection tool consisting of three parts was used in the study. The first part of the data collection tool includes the personal information form, the second part includes the Transformational Leadership Scale developed by Oran (2002) and the third part includes the Individual Innovativeness Scale adapted to Turkish by Kılıçer and Odabaşı (2010). The results of the research reveals that transformational leadership of the school principals is moderate in all sub-dimension based on the perceptions of the teachers who have participated in the research. The results point out to Individual innovativeness of teachers as the following; 35 teachers, which equals to 8.2%, were innovative, 145 teachers, which equals to 34%, were pioneers, 207 teachers, which equals to 48.6% were questioning, 37 teachers, which equals to 8.7%, were skeptical and 2 teachers which equals to 0.5% were traditionalist. In terms of the relationship; it was concluded that there was a positive correlation between inspirational motivation and resistance to change, idea leadership, openness to experience, risk taking sub-dimension scores and total innovativeness score. It was also concluded that there was a positive relationship between ideal effect, individual interest and intellectual stimulation, resistance to change, idea leadership, openness to experience, risk taking sub-dimension scores and total innovatiness scores. Finally the results also showed that the most important predictor variable was intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation subscales were positive and significant predictors of teachers' innovativeness level. Keywords: Transformational Leadership, Individual Innovativeness, Primary School Administrators and Teachers.