The Degree of Secondary Government School Principals’ Practice of Administrative Transparency and its Relationship to the Level of Teachers’ Organizational Commitment from Principals’ and Teachers’ Point of view in Palestine

Abstract

The study aims to identify the degree of secondary government school principals’ practice of administrative transparency and its relationship to the level of teachers’ organizational commitment from principals’ and teachers’ point of view in Palestine. The study community consists of principals and teachers of public secondary schools in the northern governorates of Palestine , a total of (888) principals and (17756) teachers. The descriptive-correlational method, in addition to field interviews are used. A questionnaire of two parts is developed; the first consists of six areas of administrative transparency which are: regulations and laws, performance evaluation, accountability, communication, work procedures, and decision-making. The second consists of the dimensions of organizational commitment: emotional, normative, and continuance. The study sample consists of (202) principals and (367) teachers, selected by random stratified sample. Other (20) teachers and (15) principals are selected for field interviews randomly. The results of the study show that the overall assessment of the sample for administrative transparency of public secondary school principals is high, and the areas of transparency are ranked as follows: administrative communication, decision-making, work procedures, regulations and laws receive a high assessment, while transparency of performance evaluation and accountability receive a medium assessment. The results also reveal that the overall level of organizational commitment among teachers is high, normative (ethical) commitment and emotional commitment rank first and second with a high assessment, while continuance commitment ranks last with a medium assessment. The study also shows a statistically significant positive correlation between the practice of administrative transparency by public secondary school principals and organizational commitment among teachers. In the light of the results, the research recommends to enhance practices of administrative transparency that increase organizational commitment among teachers, evaluating their efforts and developing their performance through the creation of an effective system of incentives and rewards, and to ensure that responsibilities entrusted to teachers are relevant to the powers granted to them.