Primary principals' leadership styles, school organizational health and workplace bullying

Introduction

Research conducted in training organizations indicates that teachers frequently experience heavy demands in the workplace and as many as one-third of them experience stress and exhaustion ([45] Friesen et al. ,1988; [46] Friesen and Sarros, 1989; [24] Capel, 1991; [17] Boyle et al. ,1995; [35] Dick and Wagner, 2001; [28] Cemaloglu, 2007). Research pertinent to the results of labor stress demonstrates that such may lead to decreased performance in organizations, and that turnover rates, absenteeism and alienation of employees increase ([100] Ubrin, 1978; [68] Kiev and Kohn, 1979; [2] Ailen, 1983; [34] Davis, 1987; [73] Kreitner and Kinicki, 2004; [44] Ertekin, 1993; [67] Karlsson and Archer, 2007).

Research addressing aspects of organizational environment indicates the importance of certain managerial actions which are the frequent cause of negative situations experienced by employees ([88] O'Driscoll and Beehr, 1994). In research conducted in training organizations (in Turkey this includes primary and secondary schools), relationships were found between the leadership acts of principals and the motivation, morale and work satisfaction levels of their teachers ([64] Kabadayi, 1982). In research conducted by [25] Carmeli et al. (2006) and [26] Carmeli and Tishler (2006), it was noted that the leadership acts of managers have an impact on employees' attitudes and behaviors toward innovation and that certain leadership acts improve the performance of the organization.

Another variable related to the experience of stress, exhaustion and communication problems in schools is organizational health. For example, [70] Korkmaz (2004) searched for a link between organizational health and leadership characteristics of principals. This study, like several others, points to the existence of a relationship between organizational health and leadership, efficiency, performance and organizational communication ([57] Hoy and Feldman, 1987).

Numerous factors which prompt employees to experience stress, work dissatisfaction and exhaustion in their organizational environments have been identified, one of which is bullying. [101] Uppal (2005) suggests that bullying has a significant effect on various factors thus decreasing the work satisfaction levels of employees. [49] Halbur (2005) indicates that bullying leads to severe problems such as an increase in employee turnover, a lack of morale in employees and a decrease in employee performance. Research conducted by [18] Brodsky (1976), [106] Zapf et al. (1996) and [41] Einarsen et al. (1998) indicates that relationships...