Ostracism at school from school administrators’ and teachers’ point of view: Causes and results

Abstract

School is an open system; colleagues have experienced informal interaction there. This interaction can be positive or negative and affects the function of the organization closely. Ostracism can also be regarded as a consequence of this negative interaction. Ostracism among teachers in schools negatively affects the education process in the sense of individuals and organizations. The aim of this research is to examine the ostracism experiences of school administrators and teachers. Qualitative research methods and phenomenology design are used in this research. The study group consists of 8 school administrators and 12 teachers working in public schools in Ankara. The data were collected with interview forms and analyzed by content analysis. According to the findings, the incidents of ostracism among the employees are generally related to the union/ political view, seniority, field of study, gender, belief, and diversity of views. On the other hand, teachers usually ostracize each other or are ostracized by school administrators. Participants list individual, political, organizational, and social reasons as the most important reasons for ostracism. Ostracism can have serious consequences for both individuals and organizations. Individual ostracism leads to psychological problems, loss of motivation, alienation, and decrease in performance. Organizational ostracism leads to deterioration of education process and organizational climate, conflict within the organization, decrease in employees’ sense of belonging.