Analysis of the relationship between ethical leadership behaviours of secondary school principals and organisational identification levels of teachers

Abstract

The present study has been conducted to analyze the relationship between organisational identification levels of secondary school teachers and ethical leadership behaviours of school principals. The correlational research model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the study. The study population includes secondary school teachers in five districts of Samsun province in the 2021-2022 academic year. Of this population, 417 teachers determined by cluster sampling method were included in the sample. Personal Information Form, Ethical Leadership Scale and Organisational Identification Scale were used as data collection tools. Descriptive statistics, independent groups t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression analysis were used in the analysis of the data. Results showed that teachers had high levels of organisational identification and perceptions regarding the ethical leadership of school principals. While a significant difference was found in the dimension of ethical leadership in decision making in terms of gender, no significant difference was found in environmental, communicational and behavioural ethics dimensions in terms of gender. Regarding education level and length of service, teachers’ perceived ethical leadership behaviours of secondary school principals did not show a significant difference. Organisational identification levels of teachers were not significantly different in terms of their gender, education level and length of service. A positive, strong and statistically significant correlation was found between organisational identification levels of teachers and environmental, communicational, behavioural and decision-making ethical leadership behaviours of school principals. With the exception of environmental ethics, the other three dimensions of ethical leadership predicted teachers’ perceptions of organisational identification positively and significantly. All variables together explained 61% of teachers’ organisational identification level. These results show that ethical leadership of school principals is an important aspect of teachers’ identification with the school.