Influence of School Culture and Organizational Culture on Conflicts: Case of Serbian Primary Schools

This paper explores how school culture and key organizational culture dimensions, power distance, humane orientation, performance orientation, and in-group collectivism, affect different types of conflict (task, relationship, and process) in primary schools in Serbia. It also examines how gender and teachers’ organizational commitment moderate these relationships. Data were obtained by surveying 380 respondents, all of whom were primary school teachers in Serbia. The participants were between 23 and 65 years old. Of the total sample, 19.47% were male, and 80.53% were female. The mean values ranged from 1.8046 to 4.9847, with standard deviations between 0.7699 and 1.4785. The research was conducted using a simple random sampling technique. Teachers were given questionnaires through Google Forms, which they completed online. Printed versions were also distributed and later entered into the database. The study was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. Data analysis was performed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). The findings reveal that the school culture dimension of teacher professionalism and goal setting (r = −0.297 **; β = −0.496) and the organizational culture dimension of humane orientation (r = −0.303 **; β = −0.198) have the most substantial negative effects on conflict, indicating their beneficial role in reducing it. In contrast, power distance shows a strong positive relationship with conflict, particularly with relationship conflict (r = 0.230 **; β = 0.201). Additionally, excessive emphasis on teacher collaboration and performance orientation appears to increase relationship conflict (β = 0.226; β = 0.261, respectively). Gender differences emerged: cultural dimensions were more effective in reducing conflict among women than men. Among male teachers, power distance had a stronger influence, significantly increasing task conflict (r = 0.303 **). The school culture and organizational culture dimensions significantly reduce the conflict dimensions in the case of high teacher commitment. The dimension power distance has a statistically significant and positive effect on conflicts when organizational commitment is high (r = 0.247 **). Therefore, school culture and organizational culture dimensions achieve stronger effects in committed women, while power distance achieves stronger effects in committed men.