Why Is There a Disequilibrium Between Power and Trust in Educational Settings?

Authors:
Faruk Levent, Marmara University, Turkey
Nehir Özdemir, Marmara University, Turkey
Tuba Akpolat, Marmara University, Turkey
Email: nehirozdemir@marun.edu.tr
Published: February 28, 2018
https://doi.org/10.22492/ije.6.1.06

Citation: Levent, F., Özdemir, N., & Akpolat, T. (2018). Why Is There a Disequilibrium Between Power and Trust in Educational Settings? IAFOR Journal of Education, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.22492/ije.6.1.06


Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between school administrators' power sources and teachers' organizational trust levels according to the teachers' perceptions. The sample of the study, which employed a survey research method, consisted of 401 school teachers, working in both the private and public sectors in Istanbul, Turkey. One data gathering instrument of the study incorporated the "School Administrators' Organizational Power Sources Scale" developed by Zafer (2008) and the other was the "Organizational Trust Scale" first developed by Daboval, Comish, Swindle and Gaster (1994) and adapted to Turkish by Yılmaz (2005). Descriptive statistics and parametric analysis tests were used to determine the relationship between the power and trust dimensions. According to the research findings a moderately positive relationship was found between power sources except coercive and all organizational trust subscales. There is a positively low level of relationship between coercive power and all organizational trust sub-dimensions. There is a positively moderate relationship between sensitivity to employees and communication environment sub-dimensions of organizational trust and legitimate power, as well as a low positive relationship with openness to innovation and trust to administration subscales. Thus, the results revealed that sub-dimensions of organizational power significantly predicted organizational trust scores.

Keywords

trust, education, power, administration, teacher, leadership