Informal Relationships as a Predictor of Organizational Commitment in Schools of Turkey as a Collectivist Society

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Year-Number: 2021-Volume 13, Issue 4
Yayımlanma Tarihi: 2021-07-28 10:26:20.0
Language : English
Konu : Educational Sciences
Number of pages: 1218-1234
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Abstract

In schools, as formal organizations, formal relationships defined by formal rules for employees exist, and informal relationships (natural, intimate) as a form of social relations are experienced as well. Intimate, face-to-face, and natural relations experienced at a national level are reflected in the organizational relationships in Turkey, where a collectivist culture structure is dominant. With their loose structure, schools are among the organizations in which such relationships are experienced intensely. It is expected that natural, informal relationships between school employees will increase teachers’ organizational commitment. The purpose of the research, for which the survey method is employed, is to explore informal relationships in primary schools and organizational commitment levels of school employees in administrators’ and teachers’ views and to determine whether they are correlational. The sample of the study consists of 465 administrators and teachers who work primary schools in Diyarbakır provincial and district centers. The research concludes that Schools have moderate and positive informal relationships. Informal relationships are not advanced outside of school and employees do not establish personal communication outside of work. There is a moderate level of organizational commitment in schools. Employees' commitment to the organization they work for is higher in terms of the adaptability dimension in which more importance is given to financial benefits and obligations rather than identification or internalization. The research concludes that there is a positive, moderate correlation between informal relationships and organizational commitment levels of school employees and intra-and-extra organizational informal relationships among teachers significantly predict their school commitment.

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