The Effect of School Principals’ Favoritism on Teachers' Organizational Commitment

IntroductIonFailure to comply with the rules of behavior in schools, which are accepted as social open systems, negatively affects employees' attitudes towards work and school.One of the reasons for incompatibility is the nepotistic attitudes and behaviors of administrators (Polat & Kazak, 2014).In addition, nepotism is one of the non-specialized professional rules and a disease within the phenomenon of management, which has significant effects on political behavior throughout human history (nar, 2009).Moreover, it is quite risky and difficult to resist a clientelistic administration (Kuznar & Frederick, 2005).Nepotism attitudes and behaviors stand out as a variable that directly affects employees' perception of organizational commitment.Nepotism is the privilege granted to some people by public officials in public affairs through intangible means of influence such as family ties and kinship (MEB, 2006).Nepotism, which is one of the main causes of organizational and individual failure, is a practice that involves indirect benefit without any material interest.Nepotism, which is called "Spoil System" in English, is defined as a kind of "corruption" in public bureaucracy and political decision-making processes (Kayaba, 2005).In terms of school administration, favoritism can be defined as providing unlawful and undeserved support and protection to employees whom the administrator feels close to (Erdem & Meri, 2013). AbstrActOne of the situations that negatively affects employees' attitudes towards work and school is the failure to comply with the rules of conduct in schools that are considered to be socially open systems.Nepotism attitudes and behaviors stand out as a variable that directly affects employees' perception of organizational commitment and one of the reasons for incompatibility.Nepotistic attitudes and behaviors harm the public interest, cause disruptions in the functioning of the organization and thus eliminate the principles of justice and equality.The study aims at determining the effect of school administrators' nepotistic attitudes and behaviors on teachers' organizational commitment based on teachers' perceptions was aimed.In this study, the relational survey method was adopted.The participants of the study comprised secondary schools and randomly selected 200 teachers in those schools in the Malatya province of Trkiye in the 2023-2024 school year.The data were obtained using the Scale of Nepotism in School Administration developed by Erdem and Meri (2012), and the organizational commitment scale developed by Meyer, Allen and Smith (1993), adapted into Turkish by Dal et al. (2018).As a result it has been understood that school climate based on administrative behaviors and attitudes have a great effect on teachers' organizational commitment.