Hizmetkâr Liderliğin İş Performansı Üzerindeki Etkisinde Öğretmen Özerkliğinin Aracılık Rolü

Introduction The aim of this study; to determine the effect of teachers’ perceptions of servant leadership on job performance and to test the mediating role of teacher autonomy in the effect of teachers’ perceptions of servant leadership on job performance. In this study, the scales whose validity and reliability were tested in the literature was used to collect data for the quantitative research method. The scales that is mentioned are the Servant Leadership Scale, the Job Performance Scale and the Teacher Autonomy Scales.The hypotheses of the research were tested with the participation of 212 teachers working in vocational and technical high schools in Adana in the 2022-2023 academic year. According to the findings obtained from the research, it was concluded that the perceptions of the participating teachers about their job performance were high, and the perceptions of the administrators about the servant leadership behaviors and the general autonomy perceptions were above the average value. Moreover, it has been determined that teachers’ perceptions of servant leadership behaviors affect their job performances positively. In addition, teachers’ self-perceptions of the teaching process and program, and professional development and communication have a strong mediating effect on the effect of servant leadership on job performance. Therefore, teachers’ self-perception of autonomy and servant leadership behaviors in these areas while performing their professions increase teacher performance in a positive way. Method In this research, which was carried out with the contribution of 212 teachers, the data were obtained by filling in the questionnaire forms prepared through Google Forms by voluntary participants. The scale developed by Liden et al. in 2013 was used to measure the perception of Servant Leadership. The Job Performance scale developed by Doğan in 2005 was used to collect data on the Job Performance variable. Teacher Autonomy scale developed by Çolak and Altınkurt (2017) was used to collect data on Teacher Autonomy. In the analysis of the collected data, in addition to simple statistical techniques such as mean and standard deviation, correlation and regression analyzes were applied in order to determine the relationship and effect between the variables. In line with the research model, six hypotheses were developed for the research and these hypotheses were tested with the applied statistical methods. Results The findings obtained from the research show that while the participant teachers perceive their Job Performance as high (mean=4.08), perceive their administrators’s Servant Leadership behaviors above the average values (mean=3.65). It is seen that the general autonomy perceptions of the participating teachers are generally above the average value (mean=4.05 and average=3.89). Similar results to this finding were also found by Akyol and Yazıcı (2017). As they stated that teachers’ general autonomy behaviors are above the medium level. When the dimensions of Teaching Process and Program Autonomy, which is used to express teacher autonomy, and Professional Development and Communication Autonomy are compared, it is seen that the participants perceive themselves more autonomous in the dimensions of the Teaching Process and Program, which include in-class activities, teaching materials, and interaction with students. It has been determined that the perceptions of Professional Development and Communication Autonomy, which includes the scientific meeting that teachers will attend, in-service training, and communication with colleagues and parents, have a lower value than the other dimension of teacher autonomy. This finding is similar to the results of the research conducted by Akyol and Yazıcı (2017). In the findings obtained by Akyol and Yazıcı (2017), it was determined that teachers exhibited the most teaching process autonomy and the least professional development autonomy among the autonomy dimensions. According to the research findings, there is a significant and positive relationship between all the variables of the research. In addition, it has been determined that the Perception of Teaching Process and Program Autonomy has a partial mediation effect between Perceptions of Servant Leadership and Job Performance. Another finding of the study is that there is a partial mediation effect between Perceptions of Professional Development and Communication Autonomy and Perceptions of Servant Leadership and Job Performance. Conclusion In this study, in which the variables of servant leadership, job performance and teacher autonomy were examined, answers were sought to two basic questions. The first of these is related to the effect of school administrators’ perceptions of servant leadership behaviors on teachers’ job performance. The other research question is about the mediating role of teachers’ perceptions of autonomy in this effect. Social exchange theory is the basis of the research question. According to this theory, the positive effect of the change that will occur with the displacement of resources causes individuals to be willing to participate in the change. A scientifically significant and positive relationship was determined between the participants’ Perception of Servant Leadership, Perception of Autonomy and Perception of Job Performance. Accordingly, it is concluded that a positive increase in one of thesevariables will create a positive increase in other variables. This result, in addition to showing parallelism with other research results in the literature, has been interpreted as a finding that supports the assumptions of the Social Change Theory. In particular, it is seen that there is a high level of relationship between Professional Development and Communication Autonomy and Teaching Process and Program Autonomy. This situation may draw attention to the importance of the necessity of conducting studies on autonomy in a holistic context, covering all dimensions.