A Study of Relationship Between Leadership Styles on the Characterictics of Learning Organizations in Turkish Public Schools

Year 2008, Volume: 53 Issue: 53, 75 - 98, 01.04.2008

Yrd. Doç. Dr. Mehmet Korkmaz

Abstract

In this study, how much of the variation related to the characteristics of the schools about learning organizations is related to the principals' leadership styles is examined. In other words, whether and how much the leadership styles are affective on the characteristics of learning organizations is examined. A five-scale Likert type measurement has been applied to 17 general high schools which are in the central districts of the province of Ankara, 269 teachers and administrators working in these schools. For the strgenth of the relationship between the dependent and independent variables correlation coefficient is calculated. Moreover, whether variables have effected each other and what the explanation strength has been exposed by multiple regression analysis. The findings of the analysis have shown that transformational leadership has a strong affect on the characteristics that reflect the charac-teristics of learning organizations. Furthermore, transactional leadership is a predicator of Trusting and Collaborative Climate, Shared and Monitored Mission.Laisses-Faire leader-ship is a predicator of Taking Initiatives and risks. Summary Many organization theorists (Hodges, 2000; Leithwood, Leonard and Sharrat,; Louis, 1991; Mulford, 1998; Silins, Mulford and Zarins, 1999) did researches into which characteristics formed the organizational learning. Organizations' being adaptive to the environment and responsive to change stems from the character of learning organization. Members within learning organizations have learnt to anticipate and embrace change. People in learning organizations always search the systematic results of actions. They are patient to understand more. As a result of these skills learning organiza-tions are more productive and adaptive than traditional organiza-tions.(Bates and Khasawneh, 2005; Senge,1992).Developing such organiza-tional skills need s vision, patience and courage. What is the nature of lead-ership needed for the organization to move towards by having these skills? Senge and Kofman (1993) state that learning organizations can be built by leaders who think, investigate and take risks. Leadership indeed has an important meaning in learning organizations because within such organiza-tions leaders are the people who build the organization and its skills. Such leaders are the leaders who move towards without their positions or hierar-chical authority. Problem The findings of the study suggest that every organization is to some de-gree a learning organization but are differentiated by the degree to which they learn better, faster ore more completely (Mai, 1996; Kaiser,2000;Bates and Khasawneh, 2005). The reason of these differences might be the behav-iors and the applications of the leaders within the organization. (Mai, 1996).Psychological climates and human resource systems enhance and support learning and its application. Studies done in this field are about the recognition and determination of characteristics of learning organizations (Çelik,1999; Ensari,1 998; Senge,1992) ,determination of different elements affecting organizational learning process in schools, testing of the relationship organizations' learn-ing styles and individuals' learning preferences, and obstacles of learning organizations (Honey and Mulford, 1986; David and Gorvin, 2000; Kale, 2003; Töremen, 2001). There aren't enough researches testing the relation-ship between the characteristics of learning organizations and leadership styles. Though is logical to think that leadership styles might have an effect on characteristics of learning organizations, there are few researches about the direction of this relationship. For this reason, the question does the behavior that the leader (school princaple) show within the school has an affect on the school's showing the characteristics of a learning organization or has these characters? is important. More specifically, how much of schools' learning organization characteristics are related to the leadership of the principle was investigated in this study. In this study answers to the following questions were sought. 1. Is there a significant relationship between transformational leader-ship applications and learning organizations' characteristics? 2. Is there a significant relationship between transactional leadership applications and learning organizations' characteristics? 3. Is there a significant relationship between the Laissez-faire leader-ship and learning organizations' characteristics? 4. Does the nature of leadership styles have an affect on learning or-ganizations' characteristics? Method The universe of the study is the teachers working in the central district of the province of Ankara during 2006-2007 education years. The sample of the study is the 39 managers and 230 teachers in high schools in the central district of Ankara and they were chosen randomly. Data was collected through MLQ and the survey of learning organizations' characteristics. The principles, vice principles and the other principles in these high schools were included in the study. Thinking that the factors such as gender and seniority are not significant, they were not considered to be variables. We also did not take the socio-economic level of the schools into consideration. Findings Transformational leadership is strongly related to trusting and Collabo-rative Climate(r=.71, p<.0001), Shared and Monitored Mission (r=.51,p<.0001),taking initiatives and risks (r=.64,p<.0001) and Profes-sional Development (r=.49,p<.0001)As can be seen in the Table, they are the strongest relations among the variables. These relations are a relation-ship in the same direction. The more the teachers perceive their school's principle as a transformational leader, the higher the school's learning or-ganization characteristics. These results support the results of the studies done by, Silins and Mulford, 2006)Silins,Mulford and Zains (1996). An-other striking point in the study is that there is a same direction, strong rela-tion among the dimensions that reflect learning organizations' characteris-tics. Teachers perception of their schools as trustworthy and collaborative is strongly related to Shared and Monitored Mission (r=.63, p<.0001) Discussion and Implications The findings of this study support the researches in Turkey or in a for-eign country that show that teachers would rather work with a principle having transformational leadership characteristics rather than transactional leadership characteristics. This finding is not surprising because transforma-tional leaders seem to maximize the autonomy that the teachers long for. Statistics used in this study and their analysis findings show that transforma-tional leadership has a strong affect on the characteristics that reflect the characteristics of learning organizations because these leaders support the reform efforts (Murphy and Datnow,2003) and take risk to develop a posi-tive learning culture. (Deal and Peterson, 1999).These characteristics are transformational characteristics. Transformational leaders can develop organizational learning in their own organizations through supporting crea-tive efforts such as collaboration and experience.

Keywords

Learning organizations , leadership styles , transformational leadership.

Okul Müdürlerinin Liderlik Stilleri ile Öğrenen Örgüt Özellikleri Arasındaki İlişki Üzerine Nicel Bir Araştırma

Abstract

Bu araştırmada, okulların öğrenen örgüt özelliklerine ilişkin çeşitliliğin ne kadarının müdü-rün liderlik stilleri ile ilişkilendirilebileceği araştırılmıştır. Başka bir ifade ile liderlik stillerinin öğrenen örgüt özellikleri üzerinde hangi düzeyde etkili olup olmadığı araştırılmıştır. Bunun için Ankara ili merkez ilçelerinde yer alan 17 genel lise ile bu liselerde görev yapan 269 öğ-retmen ve yöneticiye 5 dereceli likert tipinde bir ölçek uygulanmıştır. Değişkenler arasındaki ilişkinin gücü için korelasyon katsayıları hesaplanmış, ayrıca; değişkenlerin birbirlerini etki-leyip etkilemediğini ve açıklama gücünün ne olduğu ise çoklu regresyon analizi ile ortaya konmuştur. Analiz sonucunda elde edilen bulgular göstermiştir ki, öğrenen örgütlerin özellik-lerini yansıtan özelliklerin tamamı üzerinde dönüşümsel liderliğin güçlü bir etkiye sahip olduğudur. Ayrıca, etkileşimci liderliğin, güven ve işbirlikçi iklim ile gözlenen ve paylaşılan misyon özelliklerinin birer yordayıcısı olduğu, Laisez-faire liderliğin ise risk alma ve inisiyatif kullanma özelliğinin bir yordayıcısı olduğu bulunmuştur.

Keywords

Öğrenen örgüt özelliği , liderlik stilleri , dönüşümsel liderlik.

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