Abstract:

Background The congruence between individual and environment is considered as congruence between individual-profession, individual-work, individual-working group and individual-organization in organizational literature (Muckinsy and Monahan, 1987). The congruence between individual and organization is examined by various aspects, including congruence of goals (Meglino, Ravlin Atkins, 1989; Boxx, Odom Dunn, 1991; O'Reilly, Chatman Caldwell, 1991; Harris Mossholder, 1996), congruence of needs and structure (Bretz, Ash Dreher, 1989), and congruence of personality and climate (Christiansen, Villanova Mikulay, 1997). Studies related to individual-organization congruence, focuses on values for the assessment and expression of the congruence between individual and organization. Because values are rather stable characteristics of organization and individual. Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the congruence level between teachers' values and organizational values of school by perceptions of teachers at public and private schools in Turkey. Method The study group was 596 public primary school teachers and 577 private primary school teachers selected by using random cluster sampling procedures from public and private schools located at city centers of 28 provinces in Turkey. Data were collected by 34 item Value Scale developed by researcher. Value Scale was pre-tested with 120 teachers and internal consistency of Cronbach's alpha was computed as .98, item-total correlations ranging from .41 to .94. An exploratory factor analysis also produced a single structure factor with factor loadings greater than .30 (KMO=.95; p≤.05). Data were analyzed by using Pearson moments correlation test, mean, relative variation coefficient, Spearman correlation coefficient, one-way ANOVA, t-test, Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskal Wallis H-test, LSD multiple comparison test and staged multiple regression analysis. Findings and Results Findings indicated that the top five personal values public primary school teachers considered important were “justice”, “honesty”, “being human centered”, “trust” and “being hardworking”; respectively top five organizational values were “success”, “being hardworking”, “honesty”, quality” and “being human centered”. Five personal values that public primary school teachers considered the least important were “obedience”, “formality”, “respecting to seniority”, flexibility” and “being outcome centered”; five organizational values considered least important were “obedience”, “flexibility”, “respecting to seniority”, “empathy” and “freedom”. The top five personal values that private primary school teachers considered important were “honesty”, “justice”, “trust”, “being human centered” and “loyalty”; top five organizational values were “quality”, “success”, “being hardworking”, being outcome centered” and “social responsibility”. Five personal values that private primary school teachers considered the least important were “obedience”, “formality”, “being outcome centered”, “respecting to seniority”, “flexibility”; five organizational values considered least important were found to be “empathy”, “freedom”, “flexibility”, “being participant” and “independence”. There was a positive, moderate and significant relationship between personal and organizational values of public and private primary school teachers. The value congruence level between teachers and school was higher for private school teachers than public school teachers. The value congruence levels of private and public schools teachers did not show any significant differences by socioeconomic level of the city where teachers worked, teachers` educational background and the school that teachers graduated from. The value congruence level of the teachers working at Black Sea Region was higher than the teachers working at Marmara, Aegean, Eastern Anatolia, and Southeastern Anatolia regions. The value congruence level for the male teachers working at private primary schools was higher than the female teachers. At public primary schools, value congruence levels of classroom teachers were significantly higher than value congruence levels of subject specialist teachers. At public primary schools, value congruence level of teachers with 21 years or more experience was higher than value congruence level of teachers with less than 20 years of experience. At private primary schools, value congruence level of teachers with 11 to 15 years of experience was higher than the teachers with 10 years or less teaching experience.

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