The relationship between school administrators' leadership styles and organisational cynicism from teachers' perspectives

This study reported on here aimed to determine the relationship between leadership styles (democratic, autocratic and transformational) and organisational cynicism in addition to examining whether leadership styles predict organisational cynicism. The data were collected from 426 teachers (183 male and 243 female teachers) from primary and secondary schools in the central districts of Mersin. The sample was formed by availability sampling, which is one of the improbable sampling techniques. Data were collected using the Leadership Style Scale (Tas, Celik & Tomul, 2007) and the Organizational Cynicism Scale (Kalagan, 2009). Descriptive statistics, t-test, correlation and multiple regression analysis results show that views of teachers on autocratic and democratic leadership differ significantly by gender and also that male and female teachers experience behavioural cynicism to different extents. The findings of the study also reveal that all leadership styles were associated with all sub-dimensions of organisational cynicism. Furthermore, the leadership styles were found to be significant predictors of all 3 types of organisational cynicism. As a result, leadership styles of school administrators are associated to a considerable extent with organisational cynicism experienced by teachers. Thus, it would be recommended that school administrators attend training or seminars on leadership behaviour and also be evaluated by their subordinates.