A COMPARISON BETWEEN AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIORS: TEACHER CANDIDATES

OTANTİK LİDERLİK VE ÖRGÜTSEL VATANDAŞLIK DAVRANIŞLARININ KARŞILAŞTIRILMASI: ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARI

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the authentic leadership features and organizational citizenship behaviors of teacher candidates in a university’s pedagogical proficiency classrooms. This quantitative study included non-random selection of the participants. The data was collected during the 2014-2015 school year. The number of participants included 751 teacher candidates in pedagogical proficiency classrooms. The sample included 416 female participants and 335 male participants. Teacher candidates answered questions on two questionnaires: Authentic Leadership Scale (ALS) and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB). ALS included 16 items and OCB included 19 items. Both instruments were Likert type scales with five possible answers (1 = Absolutely disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, and 5 = Absolutely agree). The relationship between the authentic leadership features and organizational citizenship behaviors of teacher candidates was analyzed through Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients. The effect of organizational citizenship behaviors of teacher candidates on their authentic leadership features was analyzed through Regression Analysis. After the data was analyzed, the findings indicated that there was a significant relationship between the authentic leadership features and organizational citizenship behaviors of teacher candidates in pedagogical proficiency classrooms. The results also suggested that there was no effect of organizational citizenship behaviors of teacher candidates on their authentic leadership features Organizations which play a very important role to maintain the existence of the society, as seeking for new approaches in the name of improving the productivity of individuals. Organizations that have qualified human resources are successful in all aspects. Organizations that have difficulty in knowing how to use human resources may face major difficulties. Efficiently functioning organizations have individuals, who go beyond their officially signed contracts, work mostly on voluntary basis, and strive for the success of the organization. The effects of leadership skills of individuals would be undeniable in a context of observing organizational citizenship behaviors. In such contexts, authentic leadership features and organizational citizenship behaviors would affect the performances of teacher candidates in their future work sites. Researchers have developed various theories and definitions of leadership. The term ‘’leader’’ has been defined as the person could motivate a group of people for a specific purpose. By the end of 20th century, the authentic leadership has developed as a component of positive leadership (Clapp-Smith, Vogelgesang, and Avey, 2009). After conducting research, the researchers have concluded that as a type of leadership, authentic leadership is creating a common sense and purpose in order to meet the needs of individuals in the society (Luthans ve Avolio, 2003). Authentic leaders are aware how other people’s perceptions towards their actions and behaviors (Sosik, Jung, and Dinger, 2009). They are well aware of their surroundings in terms of problem solving skills and exhibiting ethical attitudes in work environments (Hassan and Forbis, 2011). In addition, authentic leaders tend to create transparency and willing to take responsibility in most critical cases (Shamir and Eilam, 2005; Sosik, Jung, and Dinger, 2009). Researchers suggest that authentic leadership has four subscales: self-awareness, unprejudiced assessment, relational transparency, and ethics (Gardner, Avolio, Luthans, May, and Walumbwa, 2005). In this case, self-awareness means assessing self-actions in honest ways, unprejudiced assessment means being neutral in most situations, relational transparency means openness with others, and ethics means setting high standards for moral conduct (Gardner et al., 2005). On the other hand, organizational citizenship behaviors depend on a collaborative system as individuals willingly contribute to the success of the organization (Katrinli, Atabay, and Gunay, 2006). The workers of the organizations must be willing in order to be able to make meaningful contributions (Organ, Podsakoff, and MacKenzie, 2005). Individuals with strong sense of organizational citizenship behaviors would employ innovative attitudes for the success of the organization (Jahangir, Akbar, and Haq, 2004). Researchers suggest that authentic leadership has five subscales: alturism, conscientiousness, courtesy, civic virtue, and sportsmanship (Ehrhart, 2004). Alturism refers to exhibiting benevolence to others (Allison, Voss and Dryer, 2001), conscientiousness refers to being meticulous in all situations (Özdevecioğlu, 2003), courtesy refers to attitudes preventing situations that might cause problems (Organ and Ryan, 1995), civic virtue refers to efforts in exhibiting laws associated with social mode (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, and Bachrach, 2000), and sportsmanship refers to demonstrating tolerance and being permissive in most cases (Özdevecioğlu, 2003). Purpose and Significance of the Study After conducting an extensive literature review about the relationship between authentic leadership and organizational citizenship, the results indicated that most of the studies have mainly focused on the relationships between the attitudes of employees in a work environment (Avolio, Zhu, Koh, and Bhatia, 2004). In other studies, the relationship of authentic leadership with different variables has been examined (Schnake, Dumler, and Cochran, 1993). For instance, the relationship between authentic leadership and transformational leadership or the relationship between authentic leadership and ethical leadership has been investigated several studies. However, there are only few studies focusing on the authentic leadership and organizational citizenship of teacher candidates in pedagogical proficiency classrooms. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare authen

Özet

Bu nicel araştırmada üniversitelerde öğrenim gören pedagojik formasyon öğrencilerinin otantik liderlik özellikleri ile örgütsel vatandaşlık davranışlarının karşılaştırılması amaçlanmıştır. Bu doğrultuda pedagojik formasyon öğrencilerinin otantik liderlik ve örgütsel vatandaşlık düzeylerinin belirlenmesi hedeflenmiş, otantik liderlik özellikleriyle örgütsel vatandaşlık davranışları arasında ilişki olup olmadığı araştırılmıştır. Bu çalışmanın evrenini 2014-2015 öğretim yılında üniversitelerde öğretmenlik sertifikası almak için öğrenim gören pedagojik formasyon öğrencileri oluşturmaktadır. Örneklem 751 pedagojik formasyon öğrencisinden oluşmaktadır. Katılımcıların 416'sı kadınlardan (%55.4), 335'i ise erkeklerden (%44.6) oluşmaktadır. Araştırmadaki verilerin toplanması için tarama modeli kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak Otantik Liderlik Ölçeği (OLÖ) ve Örgütsel Vatandaşlık Davranışları Ölçeği (ÖVDÖ) kullanılmıştır. OLÖ 16 maddeden, ÖVDÖ ise 19 maddeden oluşmuştur. Her iki ölçek, 5'li Likert türünden (1: kesinlikle katılmıyorum, 2: katılmıyorum, 3: Kararsızım, 4: katılıyorum, 5: kesinlikle katılıyorum) oluşmaktadır. Araştırmaya katılan pedagojik formasyon öğrencilerinin otantik liderlik düzeyleri ile örgütsel vatandaşlık düzeyleri arasındaki ilişkiyi belirlemede "Korelasyon Analizi", örgütsel vatandaşlık düzeylerinin otantik liderlik özelliklerini yordama düzeylerini belirlemede "Regresyon Analizi" kullanılmıştır. Araştırmaya katılan pedagojik formasyon öğrencilerinin otantik liderlik düzeyleri ile örgütsel vatandaşlık düzeyleri arasındaki ilişkinin "Korelasyon Analizi" ile analiz edilmesi sonucunda örgütsel vatandaşlık unsurları ve otantik liderlik unsurları arasında anlamlı ilişki ortaya çıkmıştır. Örgütsel vatandaşlık davranışlarının otantik liderlik düzeyleri üzerine etkisinin "Regresyon Analizi" ile incelenmesi sonucunda, otantik liderlik unsurlarının, örgütsel vatandaşlık davranışlarından yeterli düzeyde etkilenmediği başka bir deyişle örgütsel vatandaşlık davranışlarının otantik liderlik unsurlarının yordayıcısı ya da açıklayıcısı olmadığı sonucuna varılmıştır