Organizational Culture and its Relationship to Leadership Styles from the Viewpoints of Public-School Teachers in Hebron Governorate in Palestine

Abstract

This study is an aimed to identify the level of government schools’ organizational culture at the directorates of education in Hebron Governorate, and its relationship to its leadership styles from the viewpoints of teachers, and in light of the independent variables of sex, years of experience, specialization, directorate, and scientific qualification; it also attempts to know the differences between averages of responses among study participants, at the level of organizational culture in its organizational, administrative, and human dimensions, and its relationship to the leadership styles. The researcher used the descriptive correlative approach, and the study population consists of (10498) male and female public school teachers in the directorates of education in Hebron Governorate, whereas the study sample included (371) male and female teachers from the mentioned schools, and data was chosen through stratified random sampling. The researcher used questionnaire as a research tool, and two tools were developed, a tool for measuring the level of organizational culture in the school, and the other to measure the prevailing leadership style. The results showed that the level of organizational culture in Hebron Governorate public schools came in a large degree with an average of (3.85) and with the percentage )77%(.The organizational dimension occupied the first position, followed by the administrative dimension and then the human dimension respectively. Study results also showed that the prevailing leadership style is the democratic style which came in a large degree, followed by the Laissez-faire, the bureaucratic, and the dictatorial styles respectively, all of which came in a small degree. The results also showed the existence of statistically significant differences between the average estimates of the sample members regarding the level of organizational culture that can be attributed to the variables of gender, specialization and directorate; also, there are statistically significant differences between the average estimates of the sample members about the leadership styles that are attributed to the gender and directorate variables. The results showed an intermediate positive statistical correlation between organizational culture and the democratic style, and the existence of statistical inverse relationship between the level of organizational culture and the other three styles. The researcher has prompted the necessity of choosing a principal leader of the school, who is able to change the organizational culture with the traditional view in it, and to adopt an organizational culture that encourages creativity and innovation and keeps pace with renewal and change in all aspects of the educational process. The researcher has also recommended of the necessity of strengthening the democratic pattern in public schools and continuing to adopt it by involving teachers in various administrative operations, including decision-making and school plans.