The relationship between organizational cynicism and commitment: An investigation about the primary and middle school teachers

The main purpose of this study is to determine the levels of organizational cynicism, acording to the perceptions of teachers in primary and middle school, whether there are any significant differences in terms of their individual, proffessional characteristics and schools' characteristics. Additionally, to determine the relationship between organizational cynicism and commitment. The scope of the study is comprised of formal primay and middle school teachers in the central districts of Akhisar in Manisa in 2014-2015 academic year. Then, the sample of the study consists of 316 teachers chosen among the teachers in different primary and middle schools which are firstly classified according to their students numbers. In order to gather the data, the researcer's "Personal Data Form", "Organizational Cynicism Scale"and "Organizational Commitment Scale" are used. During the analyse of data, arithmetic average ( ), standard deviation, t- test, one way variance analyse are used. To determine which groups the differences were identified, Scheffee Test and in the event of it's not working, LSD Test is applied. Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis is used to determine the level of relationship between variables. Findings of research can be listed as follows: Tendency level of organizational cynicism perceived to be 'disagree' according teachers in primary and middle schools. Levels of organizational cynicism in cognitive and behavioural dimensions are medium whereas it is lower in affective dimension. Perception of teachers in primary and middle schools about organizational cynicism in their schools varies with respect to their marital status in behavioural dimension, on the contrary it does not vary with their gender, age, period of service, educational level, union membership and majority of school in cognitive and affective dimensions. Behavioural cynicism levels of single teachers are higher than married teachers'. Perception of teachers in primary and middle schools about organizational commitment does not vary with their gender, and marital status except on internalisation dimension. Also according to teachers organizational commitment deos not vary with the age, majority of school and educational level of teachers except on identification dimension. On the other hand it varies with union membership of the teachers on adaptation dimension while it does not vary with service period of the teachers. Organizational commitment levels of the teachers who have union membership are higher than ones who do not have. It is found out that there was medium-leveled negative relationship between the teachers' perceptions of organizational commitment and organizational cynicism in the schools. It is also observed that cognitive and affective dimensions of organizational ciynicism predict all dimensions of the organizational commitment. Other researchers can examine whether organizational commitment predicts organizational cynicism or not. Key Words: Organizational cynicism, organizational commitment, primary school, middle school, teacher.