Phenomenological study of organizational peace and its relationship with school effectiveness

The aim of this research is to examine the concept of organizational peace phenomenologically and to determine the relationship between organizational peace and school effectiveness. In addition, among the aims of the research is to determine the way in which organizational peace and school effectiveness are affected by some demographic variables of teachers. The research, which was carried out in an exploratory sequential mixed design due to its exploratory property, was carried out in three stages. First, qualitative research designed in a phenomenological design was carried out. Secondly, the Organizational Peace at School Scale was developed by using the findings of the qualitative research and the literature. Finally, a correlational survey was conducted to determine the relationship between organizational peace and school effectiveness in schools and how organizational peace and school effectiveness are perceived according to demographic variables. The participants of the qualitative research consist of ten (10) teachers. Criterion, snowball and maximum diversity sampling techniques were used to determine the participants. In the process of developing the "Organizational Peace at School Scale"; data were obtained from 622 teachers at the stage of examining the construct validity of the scale with Exploratory Factor Analysis, and from 1174 teachers during the Confirmatory Factor Analysis stage in order to verify the factor structures. In the quantitative part of the study, stratified sampling technique was used to determine the sample. In this direction, 517 teachers working in public middle schools and high schools in the central and outer districts of Şanlıurfa province in the 2020-2021 academic year constituted the sample of the research. Qualitative data in the research were obtained with the interview form created by the researcher. In the quantitative part of the study, the "Organizational Peace at School Scale ", which was developed within the scope of the research was used to determine the perception of organizational peace in their schools, and the "School Effectiveness Index" developed by Wayne K. Hoy (2009) was used to determine their perceptions about the effectiveness of their schools. The qualitative data of the research were subjected to content analysis. IBM SPSS 21 and LISREL 8.80 programs were used in the analysis of quantitative data. According to the results of the research, organizational peace has two main components called internal peace and external peace. Internal peace consists of balance and leadership, external peace consists of policies and environment dimensions of organizational peace. The concept of organizational peace characterizes "a positive organizational life with balance, democracy, effective leadership, synergistic policies, supportive close and distant environment". Professional qualifications of employees, supporting organizational features, and constructive interaction with the school's environment improve organizational peace in schools. Organizational peace in schools has obstacles due to the organizational, political and psychosocial characteristics of the school and the professional inadequacies of the employees. High levels of organizational peace in schools have positive results for teachers, school administrators, students, and low levels of organizational peace have negative results. The vast majority of teachers perceive organizational peace in their schools as negative peace and organizational quarrel, and school effectiveness at low and medium levels. Teachers working in high schools perceive organizational peace and school effectiveness in their schools higher than those working in middle schools. Teachers who are senior in the profession perceive organizational peace higher than those who are new to the profession. However, teachers' perception of organizational peace and school effectiveness does not differ due to the location of the school where they work, the length of time they work at the school, the size of the school, and the gender of the teachers and school principals they work with. There is a significant relationship between school effectiveness and internal peace. One standard unit increase in internal peace scores causes an increase of 0.81 units in school effectiveness scores. In addition, there is a strong positive relationship between internal peace and external peace. As the seniority of school administrators and teachers increases, the effectiveness of their schools is positively affected. As the working as administrators time of the administrators working in middle schools and the administrators working in outer districts increases, the effectiveness levels of the schools they work in increase. The results of this research can provide important opportunities to teachers, school administrators, and policy makers about the development of organizational peace in schools and thus increasing the level of effectiveness of schools. In addition, the "Organizational Peace at School Scale", which was developed within the scope of the research and is a pioneer in the literature, can create a new research agenda for researchers.