Relation between Democratic Leadership and Organizational Cynicism

Abstract

This study intends to analyze the relation between school principals’ leadership styles and teachers’ perception of organizational cynicism. The study group consists of 268 participants teaching at high schools in the Balıkesir district of Turkey during 2014-2015 academic year. In the study, which used relational survey model, data was collected through Democratic Leadership Scale and Organizational Cynicism Scale and analyzed by mean scores, independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and simple linear regression. The results revealed that democratic leadership is a significant predictor of organizational cynicism, and it is negatively connected with organizational cynicism. In addition, it was found that there were significant differences between seniority and gender groups as regards democratic leadership, between seniority groups as regards all dimensions of organizational cynicism, and between gender as regards affective cynicism. All the results of the study showed that the democratic leadership style displayed by school principals influences the organizational cynicism perceived by teachers.