Examining the Relationships between Occupational Professionalism and Organizational Cynicism of Teachers

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between occupational professionalism and organizational cynicism levels of teachers. The sample of this study, designed as a survey research, consists of 436 teachers employed in schools in the city center of the province of Denizli, Turkey. The data of the study were collected through the administration of Teachers’ Occupational Professionalism Scale and Organizational Cynicism Scale to the sample group. In data analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA and regression analyses were conducted. The results of the study indicate that occupational professionalism of teachers was high and their organizational cynicism was close to medium level. Low and negative relations were found between occupational professionalism of teachers and their cognitive and affective cynicism levels. According to regression analysis, only contribution to organization as one of the four sub-dimensions of occupational professionalism was a significant predictor of cognitive and affective cynicism of teachers. Occupational professionalism of teachers was not observed to be significantly influential on the behavioral cynicism of teachers. All four dimensions of occupational professionalism of teachers together explained 4.3% of cognitive cynicism of teachers and 5% of their


Introduction
Organizational professionalism and cynicism express two opposite concepts, both of which might have an effect on organizational performance.The increase of teachers' occupational professionalism and decrease in the levels of their cynical behaviors affect organizational performance positively.Within this frame, the main purpose of the study is to determine how teachers' occupational professionalism affects their cynic behaviors.In this part of the study, first relevant literature was presented in order to provide a framework of these two concepts, and then the problem statement of the study was explained.

Occupational Professionalism
According to the context, there may be some differences in who can be regarded as professional and what the indicators of 'professionalism' are.These indicators might occasionally be either to earn money as a result of the profession conducted or the quality of the profession.For instance, professionalism in music stands for the level of abilities which enables musicians to demonstrate a performance beyond the amateur level.On the other hand, in the business world professionalism refers to the successful behaviors expected from the individuals working in specific professions.Professionalism means clearly described responsibilities and behaviors for nurses, physical therapists, chemists and other medical professionals.Similarly, for professionalism in the 'classical' fields such as law, medicine and theology, there are principles, rules and expectations that have been developed over hundreds of years (Hart & Marshall, 1992).In these samples, even though the professions are different from each other, there are some presumptions regarding the common points of being "professional".One of the common points of these presumptions is that a profession is conducted through top flight success by applying the high level qualities.In this context, when professionalism is taken into account generally, it can be regarded as an expression of specialty, knowledge, skills and ways of behavior demonstrated in a specific field (Van Mokk et al., 2009).These examples also indicate that there are various conceptions for professionalism.
It is traditionally prevalent that professionalism is tended to be discussed within the scope of specific criteria (Kim-Godwin, Baek, & Wynd, 2010).According to this understanding which focuses on the features special to traditional and prestigious occupations (for instance profession of a doctor or lawyer), occupations meeting some specific criteria can be regarded as professional occupations, while the others can easily be excluded (Hoyle & John, 1995).Such an approach can be asserted to prevent some occupations including the occupation of teaching from professionalizing.
At the present time, professionalism has been transformed from determining the criteria for professionalism or for an occupation into a discourse focusing on how the attitudes and behaviors of workers are influenced in order to maintain them to behave more professionally (Evans, 2008;Evett, 2013).This viewpoint of professionalism is expected to function as a mechanism to encourage and impress the change (Gleeson & Knights, 2006).This discourse bases upon concepts such as trust, values, ethical principles and control, all of which can be regarded as concepts so as to comprehend the nature of professionalism (Evans, 2008).
Occupational professionalism is one of the dispositions revived together with this discourse.Occupational professionalism not only grounds on a discourse of professionalism EDUPIJ / VOLUME 5 / ISSUE 3 / FALL / 2016 which is directed by ethical codes created by professional groups of occupations and supervised by practitioners, but it also reflects a conception which is influenced by employers and senior managers (Evett, 2005).The concept of professionalism aims to justify the professional alteration and its reasons and also to provide employees to behave more self-controlled and disciplined while conducting their occupations (Evett, 2006(Evett, , 2011)).This conception of professionalism predicts that employees not only behave more professionally in carrying out their occupations, but also their great efforts contribute to actualize the organizational purposes.In this conception, both professional and managerial principles (autonomy and control or quality and efficiency etc.), which are antithetical to each other are applied together (Noordegraaf, 2015).Professionalism refers to an occupational conception which includes organization and supervision of employers and their works and also a mutual advantage for both the practitioners and beneficiaries (Evett, 2011(Evett, , 2013)).Within this framework, occupational professionalism can be regarded as coalescence (synthesis) of individual professionalism and organizational professionalism.As a similar approach, Altinkurt and Yilmaz (2014) described occupational professionalism as individual professionalism's giving its place to organizational professionalism.
Traditional education and current insufficiencies in the schooling systems (low level of success, undesirable behaviors, grade retention, dropping out of school etc.) compels many organizations including the educational institutions to give more importance to the concept of professionalism (Anderson, 2012).For the success of the reforms which have been conducted to overcome these insufficiencies, it has been regarded as a focal point that teachers should be provided with professional development (Matzen & Edmunds, 2007).However, it should be noted that, because of the high level of ambiguity and complexity in its nature and its very rapid changing historical, cultural and political contexts, it is not that easy to determine the meaning and frame of the teaching profession as a professional occupation as it is in some traditionally accepted professions (like doctors, lawyers) (Day, Flores, & Viana, 2007).Not only is it a concept under permanent construction and subject to different, and sometimes competing interpretations and analyses, but it also entails different 'voices' or 'perspectives' which are rooted in different political, professional and institutional endeavors (Hargreaves, 2000).
There are various classifications in the literature regarding the dimensions of occupational professionalism.For instance, Evans (2011) discussed that occupational professionalism had three dimensions, of behavior, attitude, and intellectuality.The dimension of behavior is related to a teacher's degree of maintaining the requirements of the teaching profession.This dimension consists of planning, implementing, evaluating and developing activities for improving student learning.The second dimension refers to the viewpoints and perceptions of teachers regarding the teaching profession.However, the dimension of intellectuality regards possessing the knowledge and skills related to the profession, dominating their own field and following the developments in their field.This dimension, which is related to the pedagogical side of the teaching profession, is being more emphasized at the present time.The qualifications of the teachers within this dimension can be seen as the source of teacher autonomy, which is regarded as one of the crucial elements of professionalism.As Larson (1977), as cited in Hargreaves (2000), stated, it helps distinguish professional from proletarian work (Hargreaves, 2000).McMahon and Hoy (2009) identify occupational professionalism in four sub-dimensions, which are academic engagement, self-enforcement of standards, effectiveness, and contribution to a EDUPIJ / VOLUME 5 / ISSUE 3 / FALL / 2016 professional community.Additionally, Altinkurt and Yilmaz (2014) identify occupational professionalism in four sub-dimensions, which are personal development, meaning employees' endeavoring voluntarily for improving themselves; contribution to organization, which refers to employees' using their skills and competences for the sake of the organization; professional awareness which means employees are aware of their responsibilities, being open to change and progress; and emotional labor, which means employees' trying not to reflect their personal emotions in their working life.This classification set has been used in this study.

Organizational Cynicism
The concept of cynicism appears in two dimensions in the related literature, namely general (individual) cynicism and organizational cynicism.Even though cynicism has been discussed in various meanings and context throughout different historical periods, it is generally regarded as a concept that can be used to state negative attitudes that emerged as the expression of a conception based on the idea that no other individuals should be trusted.Most researchers described cynicism as a viewpoint which is described with negative features such as despair towards one or more objects/conditions, disappointment, anger, pessimism and distrust, all of which have arisen as a result of being exposed to various factors in the environment (e.g., Altinkurt, Yilmaz, Erol, & Salali, 2014;Bateman, Sakano, & Fujita, 1992;Brandes-Ducan, 1995;Goldfarb, 1991;Guastello, Rieke, Guastello & Billings, 1992;Mirivs & Kanter, 1991;Wanous, Reichers, & Austin, 2000).This viewpoint basically withstands the idea that the principles of justice, honesty and sincerity are sacrificed for personal interests.In general, cynicism can be described to be fueled from the negative experiences of individuals and it expresses negative feelings and behaviors and therefore their lost beliefs depending on these feelings and behaviors (Laursen, 2009).
In contrast to general (individual) cynicism, at a more micro-level, organizational cynicism can be defined as the negative attitudes towards the organization, which emerge when employees believe that their organization lacks moral integrity and honesty (Andersson, 1996;Johnson & O'Leary-Kelly, 2003).Similarly, Dean, Brandes, and Dharwadkar (1998) described organizational cynicism as the critical behavior tendencies towards the organization which emerged as a result of the belief that there is a gap between the expected and observed organizational identity and also the negative reactions against organizational alteration.Organizational cynicism is compatible with these ideas and reactions previously mentioned.One of the fountain heads of organizational cynicism is that the leaders of the organizations give up the principles of honesty, justice and sincerity for their own interests (Naus, 2007).
Depending on the attitude theory, Dean et al. (1998) conceptualized organizational cynicism as a multidimensional construct, consisting of three elements known as cognitive, affective and behavioral dispositions.The first one of these elements, cognitive disposition, refers to the belief that the organization is deprived of moral integrity (that there is no honesty), the second one, affective disposition, means reflective feelings towards the organization (disrespect, anger, distress, embarrassment, anxiety, tension etc.), and the last one stands for the disposition of critical behaviors directed towards the organization that is consistent with the aforementioned feelings and beliefs.Negative attitudes towards organizations do not refer to feelings that employees have towards their organizations' attitudes; in fact, they arise as a result of the experiences of employees within the EDUPIJ / VOLUME 5 / ISSUE 3 / FALL / 2016 organization.Mazella (2007) clarified this with the anonymous expression, "cynics are made, not born".Therefore, cynicism is not a personal characteristic, but a work attitude influenced by situational factors (Andersson & Bateman, 1997).It stands for an individual's aspect that can change over time and is intended towards an organization.
Among the reasons why organizational cynicism emerges, negations such as perception of injustice, breach of psychological contract, distrust of superiors, deficiencies in leadership behaviors, long working hours, intimidation, management style, change efforts that are poorly managed and their undesirable results, high level of role conflict, and excessive workload can be included (Tokgoz & Yilmaz, 2008).As a result of cynical attitudes, individuals might have such outcomes as low performance in their profession, absenteeism, interpersonal conflicts, piling the work onto others, resistance to change, slurring over the work, struggling to discredit the workplace, alienation, indifference, refraining (retreating), despair, distrust, skepticism, disrespect and disappointment (Andersson, 1996;Andersson & Bateman, 1997;Dean et al., 1998;Reichers, Wanous, & Austin, 1997;Wanous et al., 2000).As a consequence of all of these outcomes, cynical individuals demonstrate behaviors such as selectiveness, continual nitpicking, criticizing, disbelief in others' sincerity, expressing this feeling stingingly and derisively, questioning others' intentions (Altinkurt et al., 2014;Mazella, 2007), distrusting both individuals and institutions within their environment (Peng & Zhou, 2009).
In this sense, it can be remarked that organizational cynicism is one of the administrative problem areas that should be dealt with so as to maintain organizational efficiency.Although the levels of extensiveness of cynic behaviors differ, there are employees demonstrating cynical behaviors within almost all organizations (James, 2005;Mirvis & Kanter, 1991).The same situation is pertinent for schools, because the functioning of educational organizations consist of activities mostly depending on human interactions.Teachers' demonstrating cynical characteristics cause individuals to lose their optimism towards the future, to reduce their efforts regarding their jobs and to exhibit negative beliefs and behaviors towards their schools (Altinkurt et al., 2014;Nartgun & Kalay, 2014).Therefore, it is considerably important to be aware of the factors which have an influence on teachers developing cynical attitudes and to increase their levels of cynicism because the success of schools substantially depends on teachers' behaving professionally and conducting their professions with commitment.
When the explanations above are evaluated, it can be remarked that professionalism refers to an individual that has a high level of competency in a specific field and s/he conducts their professional life with great success by applying this competency within the scope of some particular principles.On the other hand, organizational cynicism stands for those employees who have developed cynical behaviors due to negative attitudes having emerged because of various reasons, refrain from applying the aforementioned competences, neglect or omit their work and even hinder other employees' works implicitly.In short, professionalism relates to conducting a profession, whereas organizational cynicism is attached to resistance against undertaking that profession.In this context, professionalism and organizational cynicism can be regarded as two converse concepts which might have a significant influence in different ways on organizational performance.When the contents of these two concepts are evaluated, it can be expected that the higher the levels of employee professionalism, the lower their cynic dispositions will be.In the literature, there is a range of studies (e.g., Altinkurt et al., 2014;Basim, Begenirbas, & Yalcin, 2013;Bedeian, 2007; EDUPIJ / VOLUME 5 / ISSUE 3 / FALL / 2016 Bommer, Rich, & Rubin, 2005;Cerit, 2012;Cole, Brunch, & Vogel, 2006;Eaton, 2000;Helvaci & Cetin, 2012;Fitzgerald, 2002;James, 2005;Kalagan & Guzeller, 2010;Webb et al., 2004) which investigate the relationship between organizational cynicism and other concepts (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organization alienation, emotional burnout, organizational citizenship, organizational justice, breach of psychological contract etc.).Similarly, there is also a line of studies examining teachers' professionalism to be found in the literature (e.g., Begenirbas & Yalcin, 2012;Cerit, 2012;Celik & Yilmaz, 2015;Evans, 2008;James, 2005;Mockler, 2005;Servage, 2009;Swann, McIntyre, Pell, Hargreaves, & Cunningham, 2010;Toh, Diong, Boo, & Chia, 1996;Yorulmaz, Altinkurt, & Yilmaz, 2015).However, no studies investigating the relationship between professionalism and organizational cynicism in the field of education could be found by the researchers.This study is regarded to be of great importance as it is the first study aiming to determine the relationships between professionalism and organizational cynicism of teachers.
In this study, the levels of teachers' organizational cynicism are investigated in the dimensions of cognitive cynicism, affective cynicism and behavioral cynicism (Dean et al., 1998), whereas teachers' occupational professionalism is examined in the dimensions of personal development, contribution to organization, professional awareness and emotional labor (Altinkurt & Yilmaz, 2014).
In this context, the purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between occupational professionalism and organizational cynicism levels of teachers.So as to achieve this primary purpose, the following research questions were tried to be answered throughout the study:  What are the levels of teachers' occupational professionalism and their organizational cynicism? Do the levels of teachers' occupational professionalism and their organizational cynicism differ significantly in terms of the variables of gender, school type, and seniority? Does the professionalism of teachers predict their levels of organizational cynicism?

Methodology
The research was conducted using the survey model.In accordance with this model, teachers' opinions were described, they were compared in terms of certain variables and the relationship between teachers' occupational professionalism and organizational cynicism was determined.
The population of the study consists of 7965 teachers working in the city center of Denizli province, Turkey, during the 2014-2015 academic year.The sample size was calculated as 336 for a 95% confidence level.In identification of the sample, disproportionate cluster sampling method was employed in order to select participant teachers.Taking into consideration that there might be a lower return rate or imprecise completion of the scales, it was decided to seek responses from 500 teachers.Participants returned 436 valid forms and therefore the study was conducted with these valid forms.57.3% (n=250) of the participant teachers were female and 42.7% (n=186) were male.Moreover, 45.9% (n=200) of the teachers worked at primary schools; 25.0% (n=109) at secondary schools; 19.5% (n=85) at vocational high schools; and 9.6% (n=42) were working at general high schools.Besides, the seniority of the teachers varied greatly, from 1 to 43 EDUPIJ / VOLUME 5 / ISSUE 3 / FALL / 2016 years.26.4% (n=115) of the teachers had 10 years or less experience, 32.8% (n=143) between 11-20 years, and 40.8% (n=178) had 21 years or more seniority.
In this study, the data were collected through the 'Occupational Professionalism of Teachers Scale (OPTS)' and the 'Organizational Cynicism Scale'.The Occupational Professionalism of Teachers Scale was developed by Yilmaz and Altinkurt (2014).The scale consists of 24, five-point, Likert-type items.The scale has four dimensions, namely personal development, contribution to organization, professional awareness, and emotional labor.Variance ratio explained by all these four factors is 52.22%.Factor loads of the items in the four dimensions of the scale vary from .35 to .73,whereas item-total correlation coefficients vary from .40 to .84.Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) revealed a χ2/df ratio of 2.66.Other goodness for fit indexes calculated by CFA were: GFI=.82,AGFI=.78,RMSEA=.08,RMR=.05,SRMR=.08,CFI=.80,NFI=.72,NNFI=.77, and PGFI=.67.
Cronbach's Alpha internal consistency coefficient was examined for testing the reliability of the scale.The internal consistency coefficient is .79for the personal development factor, .74 for professional awareness, .86 for contribution to organization, .80 for emotional labor, and .90 for the total scale.All items in the scale are scored in the intervals of "1: Strongly Disagree" to "5: Strongly Agree".High scores from the scale show a high level of occupational professionalism of the teachers.For this study, Cronbach's Alpha internal consistency coefficient was also calculated as .81for the personal development factor, .53 for professional awareness, .84 for contribution to organization, .89for emotional labor, and .92for the total scale.The Organizational Cynicism Scale was developed by Brandes, Dharwadkar, and Dean (1999), and adapted into Turkish by Kalagan (2009).The scale consists of 13 five-point Likerttype items, and has three dimensions of cognitive cynicism, affective cynicism, and behavioral cynicism.This three-factored construct explains 78.67% of the total variance.Factor loads of the items in the three dimensions of the scale vary from .66 to .89.The goodness for fit indexes calculated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were: χ 2 /df= 2.25, GFI= .91,AGFI= .87,and RMSEA=.08.The Cronbach's Alpha internal consistency coefficient is .91 for the dimension of cognitive cynicism, .95for affective cynicism, .87 for behavioral cynicism, and .93 for the total scale.The items in the scale are scored in the intervals of "1: Strongly Disagree" to "5: Strongly Agree".A high score obtained from this scale refers to a high level of the participant's cynicism.For this study, the Cronbach's Alpha internal consistency coefficient is .92for the dimension of cognitive cynicism, .89for affective cynicism, .75 for behavioral cynicism, and .90 for the total scale.
In the data analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test for independent samples and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used in order to determine the teachers' occupational professionalism and level of organizational cynicism, and the differences between/among the variables.For significant F values, Tukey test was used so as to determine the source of significant difference.In addition, multiple regression analysis was used in order to determine whether or not teachers' occupational professionalism significantly predicts their level of organizational cynicism.Correlation coefficient as an absolute value ranging from 0.70 to 1.00 was considered as a high correlation, 0.69 to 0.30 as moderate correlation, and 0.29 to 0.00 as a low correlation (Buyukozturk, 2009).
On the other hand, not only teachers' general occupational professionalism levels [F (3- 432) =3.12; p<.05], but also their levels for the dimensions of personal development [F (3- 432) =3.31; p<.05] and contribution to organization [F (3-432) =6.72; p<.05] differ significantly in terms of the variable of the school type teachers are working at, whereas there is no significant difference in the dimensions of teachers' professional awareness [F (3-432) =1.98; p>.05] and emotional labor [F (3-432) =1.50; p>.05] according to school type.The difference in the general occupational professionalism is between primary school teachers (M=4.03,S=.56) and vocational high school teachers (M=3.82,S=.58).Occupational professionalism of primary school teachers is found to be higher than vocational high school teachers.Additionally, the difference in the dimension of contribution to organization is between vocational high school teachers (M=3.50,S=.70) and both primary school teachers (M=3.85,S=.61) and secondary school teachers (M=3.83,S=.56), while the difference in the dimension of personal development is between secondary school teachers (M=3.73,S=.72) and vocational high school teachers (M=3.38,S=.84).Vocational high school teachers' levels of personal development and contribution to organization are lower than others.
Moreover, according to the variable of seniority, teachers' occupational professionalism differs significantly for all the dimensions.For general occupational professionalism [F (2- 433) =6.82; p<.05], the significant difference is between teachers with 11-20 years of seniority (M=3.83,S=.59) and both teachers with less than 11 years (M=4.07,S=.46) and more than 21 years of seniority (M=4.03,S=.57).Furthermore, the difference in the dimension of personal development [F (2-433) =5.49; p<.05] is between teachers with 11-20 years of seniority (M=3.42,S=.77) and teachers having less than 11 years of seniority (M=3.74,S=.78).Besides, the difference in the dimension of professional awareness [F (2-433) =3.58; p<.05] is between teachers with 11-20 years of seniority (M=4.21,S=.74) and teachers having less than 11 years of seniority (M=4.43,S=.54).On the other hand, the significant difference in the dimension of contribution to organization [F (2-433) =7.28; p<.05] is found to be between teachers with 11-20 years of seniority (M=3.60,S=.67) and both teachers having less than 11 years of seniority (M=3.83,S=.60) and more than 21 years of seniority (M=3.87,S=.64).Lastly, the difference observed in the dimension of emotional labor [F (2-433) =3.80; p<.05] is between teachers with 11-20 years of seniority (M=4.17,S=.77) and teachers having more than 21 years of seniority (M=4.37,S=.69).Teachers having 11-20 years of seniority in the teaching profession has the lowest levels of occupational professionalism.
EDUPIJ / VOLUME 5 / ISSUE 3 / FALL / 2016 On the other hand, the level of teachers' organizational cynicism is close to the medium level (M=2.31,S=.75).Among the dimensions of organizational cynicism, teachers gave the highest scores to the items in the dimension of behavioral cynicism (M=2.77,S=.77), affective cynicism (M=2.34,S=.98), and cognitive cynicism (M=1.90,S=.95), respectively.
In terms of the gender variable, both the teachers' levels of general organizational cynicism [t (434) =0.72, p>.05] and also the dimensions of organizational cynicism, namely cognitive cynicism [t (434) =0.34, p>.05], affective cynicism [t (434) =1.34, p>.05] and behavioral cynicism [t (434) =1.38, p>.05] do not differ significantly.Similarly, not only the levels of teachers belonging to the dimensions of cognitive cynicism [F (2-433) =.04; p>.05], affective cynicism F (2-433) =.41; p>.05] and behavioral cynicism [F (2-433) =1.22; p>.05], but also teachers levels of the total scale for organizational cynicism [F (2-433) =.40; p>.05] do not differ significantly according to the variable of seniority.On the other hand, teachers' levels of organizational cynicism differ significantly in all the dimensions of organizational cynicism according to school type at which the teachers are working.The significant difference in the general organizational cynicism [F (3-432) =15.18; p<.05] is between primary school teachers (M=2.19,S=.68) together with secondary school teachers (M=2.09,S=.66) and general high school teachers (M=2.60,S=.89) with vocational high school teachers (M=2.68,S=.75).Likewise, the difference in the dimension of cognitive cynicism [F (3-432) =24.81; p<.05] is between primary school teachers (M=1.67,S=.76) with secondary school teachers (M=1.67,S=.76) and general high school teachers (M=2.46,S=1.22), together with vocational high school teachers (M=2.46,S=1.05).Additionally, the difference in the dimension of affective cynicism [F (3-432) =6.69; p<.05] is found to be between primary school teachers (M=2.20,S=.93) with secondary school teachers (M=2.22,S=.91) and general high school teachers (M=2.68,S=1.15) together with vocational high school teachers (M=2.66,S=0.98).Lastly, in the dimension of behavioral cynicism [F (3-432) =5.57; p<.05], the difference is observed to be between teachers working in primary schools (M=2.83,S=.93) with secondary school teachers (M=2.51,S=.79) and general high school teachers (M=2.71,S=0.59) together with vocational high school teachers (M=2.99,S=0.85).Teachers' organizational cynicism levels working at the general high schools and vocational high schools are higher than primary school teachers and secondary school teachers in both the total scale and all of its dimensions.In order to determine at what level teachers' occupational professionalism predicts their levels of organizational cynicism, the results of regression analyses are given in the tables that follow.In Table 1, multiple regression analysis results which have been performed so as to determine at what level teachers' occupational professionalism predicts their levels of cognitive cynicism are demonstrated.As can be seen from Table 1, it can be remarked that there are relationships which are negative and at a low level between cognitive cynicism and the dimensions of occupational professionalism, namely personal development (r=-.17),contribution to organization (r=-0.19)and emotional labor (r=-0.10).However, there was no statistically significant relationship found between cognitive cynicism and professional awareness.When the other variables are controlled, there is a negative and low level of relationship seen only between cognitive cynicism and contribution to organization (r=-.11).All the dimensions of occupational professionalism together have a significant and low level of relationship with teachers' cognitive cynicism levels (R=0.21,p<0.01).According to the standardized regression coefficient (β), the relative order of importance regarding the predictor variables upon teachers' cognitive cynicism levels is; contribution to organization, personal development, professional awareness, and emotional labor.When the t-test results regarding the significance of regression coefficients are investigated, it can be stated that contribution to organization is the most important predictor of cognitive cynicism.All the dimensions of occupational professionalism together explain 4.3% of teachers' cognitive cynicism levels.According to the findings obtained from this study, the regression equation of cognitive cynicism is given below:

Cognitive cynicism = 2.877 -.121 Personal development + .104 Professional awareness -.213 Contribution to organization -.046 Emotional labor
Multiple regression analysis results attained in order to determine whether or not teachers' occupational professionalism predicts their levels of affective cynicism are represented in Table 2.

Table 2. Regression analysis results regarding the prediction of affective cynicism levels
According to Table 2, it can be asserted that there are negative and low level relationships between affective cynicism and the dimensions of occupational professionalism known as personal development (r=-.15),professional awareness (r=-.15),contribution to organization (r=-0.20)and emotional labor (r=-0.18).When the other variables are controlled, there is a negative and low level relationship only between affective cynicism and contribution to organization (r=-.10).Besides, all the dimensions of occupational professionalism together have a significant and low level relationship with teachers' affective cynicism levels (R=0.22,p<0.01).According to the standardized regression coefficient (β), the relative order of importance regarding the predictor variables upon teachers' affective cynicism levels is; contribution to organization, emotional labor, personal development and professional awareness.When the t-test results regarding the significance of regression coefficients are investigated, it can clearly be stated that contribution to organization is the only important predictor of affective cynicism.All the dimensions of In Table 3, multiple regression analysis results which have been performed so as to determine whether teachers' occupational professionalism predicts their levels of behavioral cynicism are demonstrated.

Table 3. Regression analysis results regarding the prediction of behavioral cynicism levels
According to Table 3, it can be stated that there are negative and low levels of relationship between behavioral cynicism and a dimension of occupational professionalism, namely contribution to organization (r=-0.13).However, there is no statistically significant relationship found between behavioral cynicism and the other dimensions of occupational professionalism.Additionally, when the other variables are considered, there is no significant relationship found between the dimensions of occupational professionalism and behavioral cynicism.Similarly, it can also be indicated due to the t-test results about the significance of regression coefficients, occupational professionalism is not a significant predictor of teachers' behavioral cynicism perceptions.

Conclusion and Discussion
In this study, it was aimed to determine the relationship between teachers' occupational professionalism and their levels of organizational cynicism.Results indicate that teachers' occupational professionalism levels are found to be high.Teachers perceive themselves as more professional in the dimension of professional awareness when compared to other dimensions.This dimension is followed respectively by emotional labor, contribution to organization, and personal development.Similarly, the results of the research conducted by Altinkurt and Yilmaz (2014) and Yorulmaz et al. (2015) upon teachers asserted that teachers' organizational professionalism level was high and the scores given by participant teachers to the dimensions of occupational professionalism in the aforementioned studies were approximately identical to this study.However, according to the results attained from the studies of Cerit (2012) conducted in Turkey and Noordin, Rashid, Ghani, Aripin, and Darus (2010)  Teachers' occupational professionalism does not differ significantly in terms of gender variable, whereas it differs significantly according to the variables of school type and seniority of teachers.Even though occupational professionalism total scores do not differ according to their genders, there are significant differences in the dimensions of professional awareness and emotional labor in terms of gender variable.Both the professional awareness and emotional labors of female teachers are found to be higher than that of males.In addition, the general occupational professionalism of primary school teachers is higher than that of vocational high school teachers.Similarly, not only the levels of contribution to organization of primary school teachers and secondary school teachers, but also personal development levels of secondary school teachers are higher than that of vocational high school teachers.
In terms of the seniority variable, teachers having 11-20 years of experience have the lowest occupational professionalism in all the dimensions.Teachers with 11-20 years of seniority have less general occupational professionalism and contribution to organization when compared to all the other teachers, besides their personal development and professional awareness is lower than teachers having less than 11 years of seniority and lastly, their emotional labor is lower than teachers with more than 20 years.In the related literature, there are a few studies investigating teachers' occupational professionalism according to demographical variables.In the study of Yorulmaz et al. (2015), which was conducted on primary school, secondary school and high school teachers, teachers' occupational professionalism differed significantly in terms of the variables of gender and school type, while there was no significant difference in teachers' occupational professionalism according to seniority variable.In this study, it is concluded that the occupational professionalism of primary school and secondary school teachers is much higher than that of high school teachers.According to the study of Celik and Yilmaz (2015), conducted on primary school, secondary school and high school teachers, it was determined that teachers' occupational professionalism did not differ significantly in terms of gender, age, marital status, school type and seniority, whereas it differed significantly according to the fields (branch) of teachers.The results obtained from the aforementioned study indicated that classroom teachers' occupational professionalism was higher when compared to that of in-field-teachers.Additionally, in Bayhan's (2011) study, whose participants were high school teachers, it was stated that teachers' levels of occupational professionalism did not differ significantly in terms of the variables, namely gender, seniority, school type, educational status and marital status.Similarly, according to Toh et al.'s (1996) study, teachers' occupational professionalism levels did not differ in terms of seniority.
In the literature, there are also some studies regarding the components of occupational professionalism even though they are not directly related to occupational professionalism.According to the studies of Begenirbas and Yalcin (2012) and Basim et al. (2013), the variables of gender, educational level and age have an influence on teachers' emotional labor levels.Moreover, it was concluded in Yilmaz, Altinkurt, Guner, and Sen's (2015) study that teachers' emotional labor levels differ significantly in terms of gender, marital status, school type and field of teachers.As a result of all these studies, it can be asserted that there might be various reasons of these different findings regarding teachers' occupational professionalism.One of these reasons might be that different data collection instruments are applied so as to investigate teachers' occupational perceptions.In the related literature, there are many different classifications about the dimensions of occupational EDUPIJ / VOLUME 5 / ISSUE 3 / FALL / 2016 professionalism.For instance, McMahon and Hoy (2009) identify occupational professionalism in four dimensions, namely academic engagement, self-enforcement of standards, effectiveness, and contribution to a professional community.However, in their scale which was applied in this study, Altinkurt and Yilmaz (2014) described occupational professionalism in four dimensions, which are personal development, contribution to organization, professional awareness, and emotional labor.On the other hand, Bayhan (2011) identified occupational professionalism in three dimensions; occupational competence, professional approach and effectiveness.Besides, it can be recommended that further studies should be conducted about occupational professionalism since there are limited studies in the literature about this subject.
When it comes to organizational cynicism, it is seen that teachers' organizational cynicism levels are close to the medium level.In other words, teachers have considerably negative attitudes towards their schools.Among the dimensions of organizational cynicism, teachers gave the highest scores to the dimension of behavioral cynicism, affective cynicism, and cognitive cynicism, respectively.This finding corresponds to the results obtained from the other studies in the literature (Altinkurt et al., 2014;Arabaci, 2010;Kalagan & Guzeller, 2010;Ozgan, Kulekci, & Ozkan, 2012;Topkaya, Altinkurt, Yilmaz, & Dilek, 2013).Besides, in terms of school type, teachers' organizational cynicism levels differ significantly in all the dimensions.Organizational cynicism levels of teachers working at general high schools and vocational high schools are found to be higher than that of primary school teachers and secondary school teachers in all the dimensions and the total scale.This finding is generally supported by many studies in the literature.There are many studies found in the literature comprising organizational cynicism with different school types and especially different fields.Kalagan and Guzeller (2010) concluded in their study that the highest organizational cynicism level belonged to those teachers working at vocational schools for girls and followed respectively by teachers working at industrial vocational high schools, tourism high schools, Anatolian high schools, trade vocational high schools, private teaching institutions, primary schools, private schools and general high schools.The significant difference was observed to be between teachers working at vocational high schools for girls and primary school teachers.Additionally, Yetim and Ceylan (2011) identified in their study that classroom teachers had a higher level of organizational cynicism when compared to applied field teachers.
On the other hand, there is no significant difference in teachers' organizational cynicism levels according to the variable of gender.This finding corresponds to the results of other studies in the literature (Altinkurt et al., 2014;Helvaci & Cetin, 2012;Kalagan & Guzeller, 2010;Topkaya et al., 2013;Wanous, Reichers & Austin, 2000;Yetim & Ceylan, 2011, Nartgun & Kartal, 2013).Similarly, teachers' organizational cynicism levels do not differ significantly in terms of seniority variable either.This finding is supported by Helvaci and Cetin's (2012) study whereas it does not match up with the results of the studies conducted by Kalagan and Guzeller (2010) and Topkaya et al. (2013).In the study of Kalagan and Guzeller (2010), it was asserted as long as teachers' occupational seniority increased, their organizational cynicism levels decreased, whereas in the study by Topkaya et al. (2013), it was determined that when the teachers' seniority increased, their levels of organizational cynicism increased, too.
The last purpose of the study was to determine whether or not teachers' occupational professionalism predicts their levels of organizational cynicism.Regression analysis was applied for this purpose.According to the results obtained from the regression analysis, only EDUPIJ / VOLUME 5 / ISSUE 3 / FALL / 2016 the dimension of contribution to organization is an important predictor for the cognitive and affective cynicism perceptions of teachers.There are found to be negative and low level relationships between teachers' organizational professionalism and both their cognitive and affective cynicism levels.Moreover, all the dimensions of occupational professionalism together explain 4.3% of teachers' cognitive cynicism levels, whereas they explain 5% of teachers' affective cynicism levels.However, teachers' occupational professionalism is not significantly effective on their behavioral cynicism.In other words, it can be asserted that as long as teachers' occupational professionalism levels increase, their negative feelings towards the organization in the cognitive and affective dimensions decrease.However, teachers' organizational professionalism do not create any difference behaviorally.This situation can be explicated as that other factors except from occupational professionalism have more influence, especially on behavioral cynicism.Nevertheless, the number of studies related to this subject should be enhanced in order to reveal the exact reasons of this finding.There were no studies encountered by the researchers in the literature which aim to determine the relationship between teachers' occupational professionalism and their organizational cynicism.However, there are some studies about this subject which have been conducted on the police and prison workers (Poole & Regoli, 1980, Regoli, Poole, & Lotz, 1981).Even though the organizational features and occupational requirements are different, there are some findings that corresponding greatly with this present study.In these aforementioned studies, it was concluded that there were negative and low level relationships between occupational professionalism and organizational cynicism.

Table 1 .
Regression analysis results regarding the prediction of cognitive cynicism levels EDUPIJ / VOLUME 5 / ISSUE 3 / FALL / 2016 conducted in Malaysia, teachers' occupational professionalism levels were found to be low.