Özet:

Background. With respect to the creation, maintenance, and development of a school`s culture, it is important that school administrators have organizational values and act upon these values in the management process. Values constitute the essence of basic virtues. Values guide the evaluation of actions of an organization`s members and determine whether a judgment is good or bad. Values of individuals guide the process of understanding and evaluating their behavior. Determination of values at individual and organizational level contributes to the understanding of organizational reality. Individual values represent the things that are valuable and important to the individual whereas organizational values illustrate the common values adopted by the members of an organization. Determining how much effect the values of a school principal have on a school`s culture is organizationally important. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of the values of a school principal on the school culture according to the perceptions of primary school teachers. Method. A total of 348 teachers working in 10 primary schools in Elazığ city center constitutes the sample of the study. "School Culture Scale" and "Values-Based Management Scale" are used as the measurement tools in the study. Findings and Conclusion. Teachers reported that they "Agreed" (3.40 – 4.19) to the five factors of the school culture scale and two factors of the valuesbased management scale. Correlation test shows that there are significant relationships between these five factors. The highest correlation is between "Participation" and "Control" dimensions of the School Culture Scale (.77); the second highest correlation is between the two dimensions (Individual Values and Social Values) of Values-Based Management Scale (.74). The developed structural equation model suggested that values-based management significantly affected the school culture. The effect of organizational values possessed by the school principals (β = .54) is almost twice the effect of individual values (β = .29). Values-based management has significant effect on all dimensions of school culture. The highest effect was observed in participation dimension (β = .89; p < .01). This dimension is followed by control (β = .82; p < .01), meetings (β = .73; p < .01), communication (β = .67; p < .01), and climate (β = .59; p < .01) dimensions, respectively. Values-based management practices of school administrators affect the "participation" factor at the highest level. Values of managers, in other words, values-based management practices play an important role in improving the business efficiency between managers and teachers, motivating teachers, and teachers` perceptions of being respected. The fact that teachers perceive values-based management practices of school principals at high level is an indicator of the future support by teachers to the school principals` values-based practices. When employees believe that their organization considers the welfare of its members, they feel that they are endorsed by their organization. A flexible, stimulating, participatory, and supportive climate is created in schools where the principals fulfill the role of leadership culturally. As long as the teachers feel the support of the managers on their back, they will perceive the school as having a more supportive culture. Supportive school culture plays an effective role in the realization of the planned changes at school. A supportive climate is also needed for educational changes to be made at the school level. Social support provided by school principals to the teachers is effective for coping with situations that could impair the professional peace of mind and for teachers` feeling good from an occupational perspective. School culture affects everything at school. School principals who are aware of the fact that their values-based management practices have an impact on the school culture are willing to fulfill the leadership role in their schools. Leading managers are expected to be entrepreneurs, to have a vision, and to play roles that empower and motivate teachers as well as increase the student achievement. The findings of this research empirically show the effect of individual and organizational values of school principals on the school culture. In this context, school principals are expected to develop individual and organizational values that would be approved and taken an example by others; they are expected to carry out their management practices in line with these values. It seems inevitable that these values of the school principals will positively affect the student performance, which is the ultimate goal, through the school culture, which is a means to this end.

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