Understanding organizational hypocrisy in schools: the relationships between organizational legitimacy, ethical leadership, organizational hypocrisy and work-related outcomes

ABSTRACT

This study sought to examine the role of organizational legitimacy and ethical leadership in organizational hypocrisy, as well as to better understand its potential consequences in the school environment. The causal relations of organizational legitimacy, ethical leadership, organizational hypocrisy, and perceived work-related outcomes (organizational commitment, job satisfaction, motivation at work and organizational citizenship behavior) among a sample of teachers were explored. This study adopted a causal research design to examine the relations. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to ess the plausibility of a conceptual model specifying hypothesized linkages. The data of this study were collected from 574 teachers working at public primary, lower secondary and upper secondary (high) schools in Eskisehir, Turkey. Study results indicated that teachers’ perceptions of organizational legitimacy and ethical leadership have significant direct and indirect effects on their perceptions of organizational hypocrisy. The results also confirmed the proposed conceptual model affirming the significant effect of organizational hypocrisy on work-related outcomes. This study was thought to contribute to the educational administration, organizational behavior and leadership literature by emphasizing which variables negatively related to organizational hypocrisy and what kind of behaviors it can engender in schools.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Eskisehir Osmangazi University [Scientific Project Number 2017-21032].