A Comparison of Organizational Culture in Turkish Primary Schools and High Schools
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to determine teachers' perception about organizational culture and its dimensions in primary schools and high schools and to examine similarities and differences in these schools. Teachers were asked to report to what extend their school culture reflects certain cultural properties. A survey was designed to collect data from randomly selected three primary schools and three high schools in Gebze, dimensions of organizational culture were conceptualized as management, organizational commitment, identification with organization, adaptation to school, reward system, cooperation-communication, ceremonies, meetings, language, material culture items. Research results indicate that primary schools have a more dominant organizational culture compared to secondary schools. Differences were also found in some dimensions of organizational culture. Summary School culture is composed of ideas, values, hypotheses, beliefs and manners that hold school together. These norms shape experiences of people in school and lead to a common vision by leadership of an effective school administrator. School principals with a vision of effective leadership and education promote and transform school culture in a long term perspective. Through facilitating traditions, goals and ceremonies, principals work with teachers and students to create a common and cooperative vision. According to Stolp (1996), a school culture with strong traditions, ceremonies, rituals, and symbols deeply affects student's success, motivation and efficiency and promotes a positive school climate. School culture reflects school's philosophy. School's philosophy has to be coherent and consistent with societal values and overall educational philosophy of the government. This consistency and coherence depends on teachers' and managers' perceptions of school mission and culture. The purpose of this study is to determine teachers' perception of organizational culture and its dimensions in primary schools and high schools and to examine similarities and differences in these schools. Method This is a descriptive study using survey method to collect data. Study group is made up of 191 teachers from three randomly selected primary schools and three high schools in Gebze district of Kocaeli province. An Organizational Culture questionnaire, developed by (Güven, 1996) and later improved by (İra, 2004) was adapted to primary and secondary schools by the researchers to collect data. The questionnaire is composed of 54 likert type items. The reliability coefficient (Cronbach Alpha) for 54 items was computed as 0, 94. The study attempted to examine; 1.Teachers' perception of organizational culture and its dimensions in primary schools and high schools, 2.Similarities and differences between primary schools and high schools in terms of organizational culture, and its dimensions, and 3.Differences in teachers' perceptions of organizational culture by socio-demographic characteristics of teachers. Results and Discussions In primary schools, according to their seniority, the degree of agreement of teachers to applications that consist of organization culture and its loyalty to organization – identification to organization dimension shows an important difference while it does not show an important difference according to other demographic factors. According to demographic factors, in high schools, the degree of agreement of teachers to applications that consist of organizational culture and its loyalty to organization–identification to organization dimensions does not indicate an important difference. According to demographic factors, there is not an important difference at the degree of agreement of teachers who work in primary school, to application that consists of reward system dimension. As for high school teachers, according to their brunches, while there is an important difference between the degree of agreement to applications that consist of reward system ,there is not an important difference according to other demographic factors .As for the reason of this meaningful difference we can show contract teachers' perception reward system at the highest level. As the reason of this, we can show contract teachers do not know prize system or they give answers to questions in the investigation according to their expectations. Because brunch teachers know the prize system in schools they agree about the applications at middle level. In primary schools, according to their civil status and branch, while there is an important difference between the degree of agreement of teachers to applications that consist of Cooperation-Communication dimension of organizational culture there is not an important difference according to other demographic factors. As the reason of this meaningful difference according to civil status, married teachers have an experience and they continue their relations with other teachers by family relations informally; single teachers are new and inexperienced so their relations are more formal; contract teachers are inexperienced and they want to benefit from other teachers experience and knowledge. In secondary schools there is not an important difference between the degrees of agreement of teachers to applications that consist of organization culture's Cooperation-Communication dimension. In primary schools, according to their seniority and branch, there is an important difference between the degrees of agreement of teachers to applications that consist of organization culture's ceremonies, meeting language, material culture items; there is not an important difference according to other demographic factors. In secondary schools according to their sex; while there is an important difference between the degrees of agreement of teachers to applications that consist of organization culture's ceremonies, meetings, language, material culture items; there is not an important difference according to other demographic factors. As a conclusion, teachers' perception related to applications that consist of management, commitment to organizational identification, adaptation to school, reward system, cooperation-communication, ceremonies, meeting, and language, material culture items dimensions of organizational culture proves to be true at middle level. From this point, there is a strong organization culture in primary schools, but in high schools there is a weak organizational culture.
Keywords
İlköğretim ve Ortaöğretim Okullarındaki Örgüt Kültürünün Karşılaştırılması
Öz
Bu araştırmanın amacı, ilköğretim okulları ile ortaöğretim okullarında görev yapan öğretmenlerin, örgüt kültürü ve alt boyutlarında yapılan uygulamalara katılma derecelerini belirleyerek, ilköğretim ve ortaöğretim okullarındaki okul kültürünün mevcut durumunu belirlemek, benzer ve farklı yönlerini bulmaktır. Öğretmenlerin algılarına dayanarak, görev yaptıkları okulların örgüt kültürü özelliklerini ne derece gösterdikleri saptanmıştır. Araştırmada tarama yöntemi kullanılmış ve örneklem olarak Kocaeli İlindeki 3 ilköğretim okulu ile 3 ortaöğretim okulunda görev yapan öğretmenler alınmıştır. Araştırmada örgüt kültürü altı alt boyutta (yönetim; örgüte bağlılık örgütle özdeşleşme; çalışma ortamı değişikliklere uyum; ödül sistemi; işbirliği-iletişim; törenler, toplantılar, dil, maddi kültür öğeleri) incelenmiş, öğretmenlerin bu alt boyutlara katılım dereceleri belirlenmeye çalışılmıştır. Araştırma sonuçları genel olarak ilköğretim okullarında daha güçlü bir örgüt kültürü olmasına karşılık ortaöğretim okullarında orta düzeyde bir örgüt kültürünün varlığına işaret etmektedir. Örgüt kültürünün bazı alt boyutlarında da ilköğretim okulları ile ortaöğretim okulları arasında farklıklar görülmüştür.
Anahtar Kelimeler
