The Relationship between Teachers' Perceptions of Compliance with the Psychological Contract and School Administrators' Empowering Leadership Behaviors

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of school administrators’ empowering leadership behaviors on the psychological contract perceptions of secondary education institution (high school) teachers. The population of the study consists of 2,878 teachers who were working at 47 high schools located in central Elazığ during the 2019-2020 school year. The sample of the study consisted of 470 teachers selected from 12 schools using the stratified sampling method. Data were collected by using the "Scale for School Administrator Compliance with Psychological Contract" developed by Koçak (2016) and the “Scale for Teacher Compliance with Psychological Contract". Teacher perceptions of the level to which school administrators displayed empowering leadership behaviors were measured by using the Empowering Leadership Behaviors Scale developed by Konczak and Stelly and Trusty (2000) and adapted to Turkish by Aras (2013). It was found that teachers had high perceptions of school administrator compliance with psychological contract (SACPC) and that they also had a high level of compliance with psychological contract (STCPC). Additionally, it was found that teacher perceptions of school administrators displaying empowering leadership behaviors (OYGLD) were also high. Perceptions of teachers who had been working for 7-11 years in the same school regarding school administrator compliance with psychological contract were higher than those of teachers who had been working in the same institution for 2-6 years. Moderately positive and significant relationships were found between the Scale for School Administrator Compliance with Psychological Contract (SACPC), the Scale for Teacher Compliance with Psychological Contract (STCPC) and its subdimensions, and the Empowering Leadership Behaviors Scale (ELBS). The variables of deciding on one’s own, knowledge sharing and innovative performance did not have a significant impact.