The Relationship between Teachers’ School Commitment and School Culture

The study, which aims to put forth the relationship between school commitment and school culture, is designed on causal-comparative, relational survey model. The study group is composed of 150 voluntary teachers working in Aydın. In the research, “organizational culture” and “organizational commitment” scales are used. In the analysis of the data, descriptive and proof testing statistical techniques are used. At the end of the study, it is found that teachers have affective commitment perceptions at the highest level, and bureaucratic culture perceptions at the lowest. While the perceptions of the teachers related to school commitment and culture does not show any significant difference according to their gender, educational status and specialty; these perceptions show a significant difference according to seniority, type of school, and length of service at the same school. It is detected that affective commitment is predicted by task culture; continuance commitment is predicted by achievement and support culture; and normative commitment is predicted by support culture significantly. All the dimensions of organizational culture predict affective commitment at the highest level. Together with the fact that school culture is an effective factor in teachers’ commitment to their school, some suggestions are given towards developing school culture based on especially support and achievement culture.


Introduction
Increasing competition in education sector, together with various regulations (closure of private teaching institutions, educational support etc.) recently, has led educational administrators to look for ways to work more effectively and efficiently.Education system, which is based on human and works with human, has found it's seeking in human relations approach based on human.By providing the development of human resources, by harmonizing the employees with their organizations, and by increasing their organizational commitment, organizational administrators have seen that they can reach the defined objectives via human relations approach.Thus, school organizations, which are the basis of educational organizations, try to include qualified and highly committed teachers or increase the commitments of the present teachers so as to sustain their existence in a more efficient and productive way.The commitment of the teachers to their schools is the link that they feel towards the school they work for.The commitment of the teacher to the school starts with their assignment to that school, and is shaped by going to that school and start working, activities at school, the vision and mission of the school, school management, teachers, school climate and culture.School culture gives the teacher a different identity and provides all the common values, beliefs, assumptions and artifacts that could help them with the commitment to school.The presence of a strong school culture or an effort to provide it in a school could influence the level of the teacher's commitment to school by helping the teacher internalize the aims and objectives of the school and see and feel themselves as a part of it.
In fact, factors affecting the commitment of the teacher to school may generally derive from the individual, school or the environment.One of the most significant school based factors affecting the teacher's commitment level is school culture.School culture is a reality indigenous to that school including all the material and nonmaterial elements.That's why; school culture of every school may be different from one another.Thus, school, which is a structure dealing with human and whose reason of presence is human, not only constitutes a culture in it but also hands its culture down from generation to generation by fulfilling its function of community, which is one of its most significant functions.At what level can schools, which are carriers of cultures, affect the commitment of teachers to their schools with the school culture that they've formed?It is hoped that revealing the perceptions of teachers related to school culture and revealing the relationship between these perceptions and the teachers' school commitment will contribute the school to fulfill its aims and objectives, and the ones interested in the subject and working in order to increase the quality of education.

Organizational Commitment
Organizational commitment is a topic which emerged from the seeking of effective and efficient organizations and which is based on human and human relations.Researchers (Allen &Meyer, 1990;Balay, 2000;Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979;Ozbakır, 2015;Sharma, Mohapatra & Rai, 2013 etc.) have done many researches recently on this concept which is reflecting the employee's attitudes and behaviors towards the organization, occupation, union, friend, etc. Organizational commitment has been one of the most important concepts in the field of organizational psychology and behavior especially since 1970s.Thus, the value of this concept, as one of the fundamental variables of the success of the organization, has increased day by day.According to Ozalp & Kırel (2013), commitment is in fact the key variable for the success of the organization.Hence, organizational commitment has, as one of the concepts among the concepts of management attracting attention almost the most, occupied both the hearts and the brains.
While some researchers (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982;Wiener, 1982 etc.) dealt with the concept as one structure, some others (Angle & Perry, 1981;Meyer & Allen, 1991;O'Reilly & Chatman, 1986 etc.) considered it as a multi-dimensional structure.Thus, by means of different approaches, they have brought about various definitions related to commitment to arise; general (Becker, 1960;Salancik, 1977), organizational (Allen & Meyer, 1990;Mathieu & Zajac, 1990) and occupational (Blau, 1985).In fact, the reason why various definitions are made on commitment is because the researchers have, by depending on their point of view and interests, correlated the concept of commitment with such different disciplines as organizational behavior, psychology and social psychology, and they have handled it with its different aspects.There is the sense of belonging within the core of commitment, which is reflecting emotion.There is a psychological situation felt towards anything.Personal commitment can be felt towards anything such as individual, organization, occupation, object etc.This personal situation of the individual can be of the organizational commitment towards the organization, that is to say the connection between the organization and the individual.
Organizational commitment is the relative power coming into light with the membership of the individual and being identified with a certain organization (Mowday et al., 1982).With this power, the individual believes the organization's objectives and values, and makes an effort for the organization and to stay in it (Mowday et al., 1979).Organizational commitment is accepting and believing in organizational objectives and values and internalizing them, willingly struggling for the sake of the organization and longing for staying in the organization (Mayer & Schoorman, 1992) and being aware of turnover cost (Meyer & Allen, 1991).This connection with the organization felt by the employee can be perceived to the extent of how much the employees internalized the organization's objectives and values (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979).Commitment to school can be expressed as, by all the shareholders in a school, the acceptance and internalization of the objectives of the school as their own ones and voluntarily putting forth their potential power so as to accomplish those objectives.When definitions about organizational commitment are analyzed, such components as value, continuity, identification, harmony, internalization are noticed in each of these.This is the indicator that a multi-dimensional point of view can explain it briefly.Hence, (1) affective, (2) continuance and (3) normative commitment dimensions, which enables to investigate organizational commitment in a detailed way with a multi-dimensional structure, put forth by Allen andMeyer (1990, 1996) are analyzed.
Affective Commitment: Affective commitment is related with the emotions of the employees and is the identification of them with the organization and feeling themselves as a member of it.The employees stay in the organization not because they need to but they want to (Balay, 2000;Meyer & Allen, 1991;Meyer, Stanley, & Parfyonova, 2012).In affective commitment, the individual accepts the value of the organization, struggles for organizational activities and is happy to a member of the organization (Mowday, Steers, & Porter, 1979;Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002).Employees motivated naturally like that can contribute the organization more to increase organizational efficiency and effectivity.As affective commitment includes moral issues, it can also be expressed as value-oriented commitment.
Continuance commitment: Continuance commitment is the awareness of the employees of the costs and negation that turnovers can bring to the organization (Meyer, Stanley, & Parfyonova, 2012), and keeping on to stay in the organization as they have requirements and necessities (Meyer & Allen, 1991).In continuance commitment, the gains (wage, status, retirement rights etc.) of the employees in the long term in return of what they give to the organization are important.Together with the fact that the gains of the employees in the long term prevents them from turnover intentions, the economic status, organizational rules (obligatory service, contract etc.) and social pressure (inconstancy, incompatibility etc.) arising from culture can also lead to continuance commitment.According to Gundlach, Achrol, and Mentzer (1995), in continuance commitment there is the confidence of the employees that they will get more gains from the organization in return of their actions.As continuance commitment includes instrumental situations, it can be defined as commitment based on self-seeking.
Normative Commitment: In this dimension of commitment, the employee fells that working in the organization is a liability (Meyer, Stanley, & Parfyonova, 2012) and morally believes that it is a must to stay in the organization.Normative commitment is an obligation including the sense of responsibility of the employees in the organization (Meyer & Allen, 1991).However, the obligation here depends on moral feelings.The individual believes in the rightness and morality of what is done.In normative commitment, social pressure takes up a significant space and psychologically ties the employees to their organization.Thus, the employees devote themselves to the organization, work for the sake of it and never criticize.Normative commitment can be defined as ethical commitment as it includes moral issues and inquiry.
Thoughts of commitment to organization can appear in the individual as "I want to stay in the organization" in affective commitment; "I must stay in the organization" in continuance commitment; and "I have to stay in the organization" in normative commitment.According to Balay (2000), in all these three types of commitment, the employees keep on staying in the organization.These three types of commitment can be felt in different levels by the employees and they can affect their behaviors.Providing organizational commitment is an element which increases organizational efficiency and affectivity.The commitment of the employees is one of the basic factors in organizational achievement.That's why, all the organizations wish to increase their employees' organizational commitment.

Organizational Culture
The studies about organization culture, which is accepted as one of the most significant elements to understand organization has gained importance in the last quarter of 20 th century, especially together with the study of Pettigrew (1979); and the settlement of literature is provided by means of the studies of such researchers as Deal and Kennedy (1982), Ouchi (1981), Peter and Waterman (1982).The fact that national culture was not enough to explain the differences which arose during the investigation of reasons why the performance of U.S. companies were not as well as Japanese companies and why Japanese economy had a rapid growth, and the need for a new concept to serve for this objective caused the concept of organizational culture to arise (Shein, 2010).Hence, via Hawthorne studies and intracultural management studies, organizational culture has become an important issue for the organizations (Baumueller, 2007).In fact, organizational culture has become one of the most significant topics of anthropology, sociology (Pettigrew, 1979) social psychology and cognitive psychology (Shein, 2010).Organizational culture is an important tool providing or hindering the change in the cultural structure in the organization.When literature related to organizational culture is analyzed, it is expressed as a series of cognition shared by the members of a social unit; fundamental assumption patterns shared by the members of the organization, thought and studied, put forth by a group so as to sort out exterior adaptation and interior harmony problems, and teaching new members how to understand, think and feel these problems (Shein, 2010).It is possible to reach plenty of definitions (Guclu, 2003;Sisman, 2002) of organizational culture; as a system in which beliefs and values are shared so as to set organizational life and provide behavior norms (Koberg & Chusmir, 1987), including such symbolic meanings as story, myth, slogan, heroism, set of values shared by the members of the organization (Peters & Waterman, 1982).One of the reasons why there are plenty of organizational culture definitions is probably the thought of reflecting the view of the society via different eyes (Kıral, 2008).Together with the fact that there are various definitions of organizational culture, there are also common features.Based upon the common features of these different definitions, organizational culture can be defined as integrity formed by soul values, assumptions, beliefs and artifacts.
Organizational culture leads to form a common perception within the organization (Van den Berg & Wilderom, 2004).Organizational culture has such features as taking initiatives, risk resistance, directing, integration, support of management, system of control, identity, reward system, conflict resistance and communication, which are shared by all the members of the organization and which separates it from other organizations (Hofstede, 2002).While having these features in an organization at a high level makes it easy to create organizational culture, lacking these can cause an exactly opposite situation.Besides, while working together for a long time and sharing common values are indicators of a strong organizational culture (Chatman & Eunyoung Cha, 2003) being together very short time and not being able to create common values are important indicators of a weak organizational culture (Lussier, 2002).Organizational culture can let the employees get their bearings and meanwhile, can prevent them from being able to see.That's why, organizational culture is like a double-edged knife (Palmer & Hardy, 2004).In literature, organizational culture is designed by various researchers (Harrison, 1972;Hofstede, 2002;Ipek, 1999;Terzi, 2005 etc.).In this study, (1) task, (2) support, (3) achievement and (4) bureaucracy culture dimensions put forth by Terzi (2005) and generally accepted all around Turkey.
Task culture: Employees working in organizations having task culture deals with task to be done in the organization.It is expected that employees spend more time and effort for their work.The important point in the tasks that employees are responsible for doing is that employees should have specialized field knowledge about the work.It is expected that the individual having specialized field knowledge will carry out that task in the best way.
Support culture: In organizations with support culture, the management shows a supportive attitude and employees come into prominence.The resources that employees need for the work to be done are supplied and employees are supported.Necessary training is given in order for the employees to improve their skills and team work and human relations come are taken at the center stage.
Achievement culture: In the organizations having this type of culture, the employees struggling in order to accomplish their tasks and determining their own objectives are appreciated.The important point here is that the objectives of the employees should be accessible and realistic, and the employees should be eager to work to achieve them.The employees are objective-oriented, willingly take initiatives and share information.
Bureaucracy culture: In these types of organizations, there is a hierarchical structure and the tasks and responsibilities, job descriptions and analysis, and way of communication of the individual is defined obviously within authority sequence.The employee is asked to sort the problems encountered within this framework and is asked not to step out of this.
The employees in the organization can feel all the dimensions of culture mentioned but the dominant culture in the organization is felt by everybody at a high level.A person out of the organization can feel it easily by looking at the climate of the organization.While individual and organizational needs can be met at a high level in an organization that achievement and support culture are dominant, organizational needs rather than individual needs can be met at a high level in an organization that task and bureaucracy culture are dominant.

The Relationship between School Culture and Commitment
The facts that the fundamental values, artifacts, norms and assumptions that compose organizational culture are commonly accepted by the employees of the organization are some of the most important factors that affect organizational commitment.Hence, an individual who does not believe and internalize the values that are the fundamental elements of organizational culture has trouble in committing himself to the organization, struggling for the success of the organization, accomplishing the assigned tasks and responsibilities.Organizational culture functions as if it was glue sticking the employees with each other and enacting their organizational performance and their organizational commitment (Van den Berg & Wilderom, 2004).
Raising the cultural elements which help the teachers commit in a school, that is an organization, at a wanted, desired level can increase their commitment to school.If school culture can give the teachers the feeling of belonging to school, if it can increase their commitment to school, it can be mentioned that there is a strong culture that is accepted by the teachers.Furthermore, it is clear from the studies made that there are various relationships between organizational culture and commitment (Lok & Crawford, 1999;Singh, 2007), citizenship (Gok, 2007;Stevenson, 2001), achievement (MacNeil, Prater, & Busch, 2009;Peters & Waterman, 1982) etc.
The culture of every organization is different from each other and related to this, naturally commitment of every employee can show differences compared to one another.The more the school becomes integrated with its employees, infuse the school's aims and objectives into them and harmonize their objective with those of the school, the more it can increase the commitment of its employees.That's why, it is hoped that putting forth the perceptions of elementary school teachers related to school culture and commitment, and the impacts of school culture on commitment; putting forth suggestions based on these can lead both the implementers and the politicians, and there shall be a more qualified educational activity.Hence, in this study which aims to put forth the relationships between high school teachers' school commitment and school culture, the answers to the questions below are sought: 1) What are the perception levels of the teachers related to school commitment and school culture?
2) Do the perception levels of the teachers related to school commitment and school culture differentiate according to the variables of; gender, seniority, length of service at that school, school type, educational status, and specialty?
3) Do the perception levels of the teachers related to school culture predict their perception levels related to school commitment?

Method
The model of this research, which aims to put forth the relationship between high school teachers' school commitment levels and school culture is; causal-comparative and relational survey model (Balcı, 2009).In the research, the presence of covariance between the variables (commitment and culture) is revealed, and later on, to what extent organizational culture, analyzed as independent variable, affects commitment, analyzed as dependent variable, is put forth.

Sampling Procedures
The population of the research is composed of 201 high school teachers working in nine high schools of Aydın province Cine town in 2013-2014 academic years.Because of such reasons as the relative narrowness of the universe and the problems in the returns of the scales, it was aimed to reach the entire population by doing complete inventory; but 157 volunteer teachers attended the research.These participants compose the study group of the research.7 of the participant responds to data collection tools were not included in the research because of inappropriateness.The research was conducted with 150 teachers.

Data Collection Tools
In the research, "Organizational Culture Scale" of Terzi (2005) and "Organizational Commitment Scale" of Allen and Meyer (1991) are used in order to collect data.
Organizational culture scale.The scale developed by Terzi (2005) is 5 five point Likert type [Always (5)-Never (1)] scale; and is composed of four dimensions [Support Culture (SC), Achievement Culture (AC), Bureaucratic Culture (BC) and Task Culture (TC)] and 29 items.In the reliability study made by the researcher, Cronbach Alpha values, both general and dimensional, varied between .76 and .88(Terzi, 2005).The scale was also used by many other researchers (Arabacı, 2014;Esinbay, 2008 etc.).In the reliability study made for this study, it was found that Cronbach Alpha values varied between .68 and .90;and total variance explanation rate of four-factor structure was 55%.
Organizational commitment scale.The scale developed by Meyer and Allen (1991) is 5 five point Likert type [Totally Disagree (1)-Totally Agree (5)] scale; and is composed of three dimensions [Affective Commitment (AC), Continuance Commitment (CC) and Normative Commitment (NC)] and 18 items.In the scale, four items are reverse-coded.The scale was adapted to Turkish by Baysal & Paksoy (1999) and validity and reliability study of the scale was made, and it has been used by many other researchers (Akgul, 2012;Ozbakır, 2015 etc.).
In the reliability study made by the researchers, it was detected that Cronbach Alpha values, both general and dimensional, varied between .66 and .81.In the reliability study made for this study, it was found that Cronbach Alpha values varied between .54 and .76;and total variance explanation rate of three-factor structure was 48%.

Data Analysis
In order to define the school culture and commitment perception levels of the teachers, descriptive statistics were used.In paired comparisons, t test; in comparisons with three or more factors, one way variance analysis (ANOVA) was used in cases of normality; so as to find out the source of difference, LSD test was done.In cases which do not meet the normality condition (n<30), Kruskal Wallis test was used; and to be able to find the source of difference, Mann Whitney U test was done.In order to determine whether the perception levels of the teachers related to school culture predicts their school commitment or not, Multiple Regression Analysis was used (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007).In evaluation, the fact that correlation coefficient is between 0.00-0.29 is interpreted as low; between 0.30 and 0.69 is interpreted as medium; and between 0.70 and 1.00 is interpreted as high (Buyukozturk, 2007).

Results
The findings of the research are organized in a row appropriate with the problem of the research as; findings related to the teachers' perceptions of school commitment and school culture, findings related to the relationship between the teachers' perceptions of school culture and school commitment, respectively.The findings gathered related to organizational commitment and organizational culture perception levels of the teachers are given in Table 1.When Table 1 is analyzed, it can be seen that the teachers perceive, among the dimensions of organizational commitment, "affective commitment" (M= 3.52; sd=.75) dimension at the highest level.It is also found out that the teachers perceive, among the sub-dimensions of organizational culture, "Task Culture" (M=4.03 sd=.65) dimension at the highest level.
The commitment of the teachers does not show a significant difference according to variables of gender, length of service at the school, educational status and specialty but it shows a significant difference according to type of school and seniority (Table 2).The perceptions of the teachers related to affective [X 2 (4) = 15.330;p< .05]commitment show a significant difference according to seniority variable (Table 3).As a result of the multiple comparisons made via Mann-Whitney U test, it is found out that ordinal numeral means of the teachers with 5 years or less seniority and 21 years or more seniority related to affective commitment are significantly higher that the teachers with 6-10 years, 11-15 years and 16-20 years seniority.(4) = 28.765;p< .05]culture perceptions of the teachers show a meaningful difference according to seniority variable (Table 5).It is found out that teachers with 5 years or less seniority have significantly higher perceptions of support and task culture compared to teachers with 6-10 years, 11-15 years, and 16-20 years seniority; teachers with 21 years or more seniority have significantly higher perceptions of support and achievement culture compared to teachers with 6-10 years seniority; teachers with 5 years or less seniority have significantly higher perceptions of achievement culture compared to teachers with 6-10 years seniority; teachers with 6-10 years seniority have significantly lower perceptions of task culture compared to teachers with 11-15 years, 16-20 years and 21 years or more seniority; and likewise, teachers with 11-15 years seniority have significantly lower perceptions of task culture compared to teachers with 21 years or more seniority.(2) = 8.462; p< .05]culture perceptions of the teachers show a significant difference according to length of service at the same school variable (Table 6).Teachers with 5 years or less length of service at the same school have significantly higher perceptions of support and achievement culture compared to teachers with 11 years or more length of service at the same school.Regression analysis results related to the prediction of affective, continuance and normative commitments according to support, achievement, bureaucracy and task culture variables are given in Table 7.

Discussion, Conclusion and Suggestions
In the research, it was aimed to put forth the relationship between the teachers' school commitment levels and school culture.Taking into consideration the aim of the research, the results gathered from the research are discussed below respectively and suggestions are presented based on the results.
It is found out that among school commitment dimensions, "affective commitment" dimension is perceived at the highest level by the teachers, and it is followed by normative and continuance commitment dimensions.It is found that the findings of the researches by Maral (2015), Meyer, Stanley, and Parfyonova (2012), Ozbakır (2015) and Uysal (2014) are similar with those of present study; dimensions perceived at the highest level in the researches by Erturk (2014) and Korkmaz (2014) are similar; and dimensions perceived at the lowest level in the research of Ceyhan (2014) are similar.Commitment of the teachers is; "good" in affective commitment sub-dimension; and "medium" level in normative and continuance sub-dimensions and generally.It is found that commitment is generally at medium level in the researchers done by Ceyhan (2014), Erturk (2014) and Ezer (2014).
The fact that affective commitment is higher compared to other types of commitment can be an indicator that the teachers stay in the school because they want to, they are contented with the school, they are identified with the school, they struggle for the success of the school and they are satisfied with the work they are doing at school.Hence, according to Angle & Perry (1981), individual with affective commitment stays in the organization as a member of it and struggles in order to carry out the objectives of the organization.That normative commitment is higher is an important indicator that employees have high level of loyalty to their organization (Meyer, Stanley, & Parfyonova, 2012).However, as the teachers in the research have a medium level normative commitment, it can be interpreted as an indicator that they do not have level of loyalty to their organizations and the return of their investments to school is low but they perform their tasks at school in accordance with occupational ethics principles without disrupting the process.The reason why continuance commitment is last can stem from their beliefs that the teachers have high level of confidence because they had education at a certain level, personal rights provided by teaching can also be provided by other organizations, leaving school will not ruin their lives and the job does not have much attraction.
According to Allen and Mayer (1990), the education and abilities of the individual, investments that the organization makes for the individual, benefits that the individual will lack on the condition of turnover, socio-economic status that the individual is in and other alternatives affect continuance commitment.While affective and normative commitments are desired commitment types which cause positive changes in teachers' organizational behavior; continuance commitment, as a type of commitment arising from obligation, may not contribute to organizational improvement and change.Hence, management of the organization can wish their employees to have affective commitment at first, normative commitment then, and continuance commitment arising from obligation at last.That the individual feels himself sufficient and his attention to work can have positive impact on normative and affective commitment (Meyer, Stanley, & Parfyonova, 2012).
Commitment of the teachers exhibit a significant difference according to variables of gender, length of service at school, educational status and specialty but do not exhibit a significant difference according to school type and seniority variables.Similar with the present research, there are researches that commitment does not show differences according to gender (Ozbakır, 2015;Sharma, Mohapatra, & Rai, 2013;Sirin, 2014); and others that show differences according to gender (Canak, 2014;Dere, 2014;Meyer, Stanley, & Parfyonova, 2012).That's why, no generalization should be done on whether gender is a variable that affects organizational commitment or not.However, while researchers (Hrebiniak & Alutto, 1972;Mathieu & Zajac, 1990 etc.) attribute the reasons why organizational commitment levels of women are low to paying more attention to roles and tasks in the family by women, and to such obstacles as moral, cultural and organizational policies that women come across in the participation of labor force; they attribute the reasons why their commitment level is low to the fact that they do not like changing organizations, and that they have spent more time reaching the status that they have in the organization.
Likewise, there are researches that organizational commitment does not change (Canak, 2014;Uysal, 2014) and change (Comert, 2014;Didin, 2014;Meyer, Stanley, & Parfyonova, 2012) according to length of service at the same school.In fact, as time spent at school increases, the cost of turnover from the organization increases, too and the individuals loyalty to the organization is empowered.Together with the time spent in the organization, harmonizing and balancing the objectives between the individual and the organization can also increase organizational commitment (Balay, 2000).In accordance with the time spent in the organization, such reasons as getting used to the work, being satisfied with it, the status and retirement rights gained can also let the employees commit to their organization.Similar with the present research, there are researches that do not indicate differences (Ceyhan, 2014;Didin, 2014;Ozbakır, 2015;Sharma, Mohapatra, & Rai, 2013) and indicate meaningful differences (Comert, 2014;Mowday et al., 1979;Tanrıseven, 2014) according to educational status.
The fact that educational status of the employees is high is a factor that affects turnover intentions.Thus, it is more possible for the employees with higher educational status to leave work and find a new one when compared to the employees with lower educational status (Mowday et al., 1979).Similar with the present study, there are researches that put forth that specialty variable do not create a significant difference in the teachers' commitment (Ceyhan, 2014;Kıslacık, 2014) and create a significant difference (Comert, 2014;Maral, 2015;Tanrıseven, 2014).In Ceyhan's (2014) research, it is detected that vocational subject teachers' affective commitment is higher than that of culture subject teachers.In fact, vocational subject teachers stay at school more that culture subject teachers and this can be an important factor affecting their commitment levels.
In the study, there is a significant difference in affective and normative commitment according to school type variable.There are researches that school type provides a significant difference in organizational commitment (Comert, 2014;Korkmaz, 2014) and that it does not provide a significant difference (Yıldız, 2013).In the present research, affective and normative commitment levels of Anatolian High School teachers are found higher when compared to the teachers working in Vocational High Schools.The reasons why Anatolian High School teachers' commitment is higher can be the fact that Anatolian High School students' achievement mean scores are higher than those of Vocational High School students, that the teachers, thereby, are satisfied with the lessons more, they embrace their schools and willingly do the tasks assigned them.
The perceptions of the teachers related to affective commitment exhibits a significant difference according to seniority.Affective commitment of teachers with 5 years or less seniority and with 21 years or more seniority is significantly higher than that of teachers with 6-10 years, 11-15 years and 16-20 years seniority.There are researches that reveal organizational commitment is related with seniority (Canak, 2014;Dere, 2014;Erturk, 2014;Meyer et al., 2002;Meyer, Stanley, & Parfyonova, 2012;Sirin, 2014;Yıldız, 2013) and is not related with seniority (Ceyhan, 2014;Kaur & Sandhu, 2010).In Sirin's (2014) research, it is found that organizational commitment of teachers who are in the first and last years of their career is higher.In the present research, the reasons why organizational commitment of young teachers whose seniority is less, in other words, who have just began their career, is high can stem from the fact that these teachers were able to start teaching only after overcoming various difficulties and passing various exams, that they work in their schools with an idealistic attitude, and they try to identify and harmonize the objectives of the school with theirs.Besides, the reason why affective commitment of the teachers with more seniority is higher can be because they got used to the school and the system at school in time, they became integrated with the school, they harmonized the objectives and values of the school with theirs.
The teachers perceived, of the dimensions of school culture, "Task Culture" at the highest level and then "Support", "Achievement" and "Bureaucracy" culture dimensions, respectively.In Esinbay's (2008) research, similar results were gathered, too.Besides, there are studies that power culture is the first (Pulat, 2010;Terzi, 1999), support culture is the first (Cit, 2012;Gumus, 2011) and bureaucracy culture is the last (Arabacı, 2014;Maral, 2015).The general perceptions of elementary school teachers related to school culture are found high.There are also studies, similar with the present study, that the perceptions of the employees related to organizational culture is high (Yılmaz, 2014); good (Kahveci, 2015) and medium (Yurttakal, 2007).According to the findings of the research, it can be said that there is such a culture that the teachers initially perform the tasks assigned, and while they are performing these tasks, they hope to be appreciated and supported, and they expect to achieve (Kıral, 2015).A school in which the participation of the teachers in decisions is high, the thoughts of them are taken, their creativity is brought into the forefront is one step front concerning achievement compared with other schools.On the other hand, schools are, in fact, bureaucratic settings.However, the fact that this dimension is felt the least by the teachers is an indicator that vertical and horizontal relationships in the school is well and the teachers work in harmony at school, and they do not feel this culture much.Also, this finding is the indicator that things at school are performed in harmony and corporation, in a self-sacrificing manner, authorization and responsibilities are known and the employees are not under close control.According to Esinbay (2008), in a school which teachers fulfilling their tasks are supported, it is quite normal to be successful.Supporting the teachers while fulfilling their tasks and rewarding the successful ones can increase their possibility of shouldering the responsibilities and codetermination of labor.School culture perceptions of the teachers do not exhibit a significant difference according to gender, educational status and specialty variables but exhibit a significant difference according to variables of school type, seniority and length of service at the same school.While there are researches that organizational culture exhibits a significant difference (Arabacı, 2014;Sonmez, 2013;Yılmaz, 2014) according to gender, there are also researches that it does not show any significant difference (Cit, 2012;Esinbay, 2008;Gumus, 2011;Ruclar, 2013;Simsek, 2014;Uc, 2013).In the research of Terzi (2005), it is detected that female teachers have higher perceptions of task and bureaucratic culture compared to male teachers.That is explained as; women perform teaching, in which they present themselves in the very best way, in a sense of mission and without retarding the tasks assigned, and they are contented with the profession.There are researches that educational status puts forth a significant difference (Cit, 2012;Pulat, 2010) in organizational culture and there are some others that there is no significant difference (Alkan, 2008;Ruclar, 2013;Sonmez, 2013).In the research of Cit (2012), it is detected that teachers with postgraduate degrees have lower support culture perceptions compared to the ones with bachelor's degree.There are researches that specialty does not provide a significant difference araştırmalar (Maral, 2015;Ogulluk, 2010;Sönmez, 2013) related to organizational culture and some others that there is a significant difference (Esinbay, 2008;Simsek, 2014;Yalınkılıc, 2012).In Esinbay's (2008) research, it is detected that specialty does not provide a significant difference in task, support and achievement culture sub-dimensions but provides a significant difference in bureaucratic culture.
In the research, bureaucratic and task culture perceptions of Anatolian High School teachers are higher than those of Vocational High School teachers.The expectations of not only school management but also parents from Anatolian High School teachers are relatively higher than Vocational High School teachers.Naturally, these expectations may be forming pressure on them.So as to get rid of this pressure, the teachers may be trying to fulfill the tasks assigned to them in accordance with the principles and rules, and may not be getting out of this.
The fact that both the students' and the parents' achievement expectations are relatively lower may let them work in a freer environment.Similar with the present study, there are researches that there is a difference (Alkan, 2008;Ogulluk, 2010;Simsek, 2014) and there is no difference (Terzi, 1999;Sonmez, 2013) according to school type.In Alkan's (2008) research, meaningful differences are found in task, achievement and support culture sub-dimensions according to school type variable.
Support, achievement and task culture perceptions of the teachers show a significant difference according to seniority variable.It is found out that teachers with 5 years or less seniority have significantly higher perceptions of support and task culture compared to teachers with 6-10 years, 11-15 years, and 16-20 years seniority; teachers with 21 years or more seniority have significantly higher perceptions of support and achievement culture compared to teachers with 6-10 years seniority; teachers with 5 years or less seniority have significantly higher perceptions of achievement culture compared to teachers with 6-10 years seniority; teachers with 6-10 years seniority have significantly lower perceptions of task culture compared to teachers with 11-15 years, 16-20 years and 21 years or more seniority; and likewise, teachers with 11-15 years seniority have significantly lower perceptions of task culture compared to teachers with 21 years or more seniority.The reasons why task, support and achievement culture perceptions are high can be the fact that teachers with 5 years or less seniority are supported in their tasks by school management as they have just began their career and they are in their first years, that they are expected to perform the necessities of the task in an accurate way, and that they are rewarded for the tasks assigned so as to be motivated.The reasons why teachers with 21 years or more seniority have higher perceptions of support and achievement culture may stem from the fact that they fulfill the tasks appropriately depending on experience, they try to demonstrate themselves vie these tasks, school management support the self-sacrificed works of these teachers who have a certain seniority, and the results of their activities are rewarded.That the teachers with 6-10 years and 11-15 years seniority are in comfort period, they do not need to prove themselves, and they think they will not get anything in struggling for more may be the reasons why task culture perceptions are low.While there are researches that perceptions related to organizational culture change (Gumus, 2011;Kahveci, 2015;Maral, 2015) according to seniority, there are others that these perceptions do not change (Esinbay, 2008;Simsek, 2014;Yalınkılıc, 2012).In Gumus's (2011) research, it is found out that support culture perceptions of teachers with 30 years or more seniority are higher than those of teachers with less seniority.
In the research, support and achievement culture perceptions of the teachers with 5 years or less length of service at the school are higher than those of the teachers with 11 years or more length of service at the same school.This may stem from the fact that teachers with less length of service at the school may have been subjected to orientation program about school activities, may have been informed about how the processes and relationships at school should be, may have been supported during the tasks at school or to be able to fall with the school, and may have been rewarded for the activities assigned to them so as to taste the feeling of success.There are some researches that there is a significant difference (Alkan, 2008;Pulat, 2010;Uc, 2013;Simsek, 2014) according to length of service at the school and some others that there is no significant difference (Cit, 2012;Ruclar, 2013;Yurttakal, 2007).In Uc's (2013) study, it is detected that the perceptions of the teachers with 20 years or more length of service at the same school related to support culture are higher than the others.
It is found out that there is a positively medium level significant relationship between affective commitment and support, achievement and task culture but there is no significant relationship with bureaucracy culture; and generally, there is a positively medium level relationship between organizational culture and affective commitment.Also, there is a negatively low relationship between continuance commitment and support culture; positively low significant relationship with achievement and bureaucracy culture but there is no significant relationship with task culture.There is a positively medium level relationship between continuance commitment and organizational cultures.It is detected that there is a positively medium level relationship between normative commitment and support, achievement and task cultures but there is no significant relationship with bureaucracy culture; and generally, there is a positively medium level significant relationship between organizational culture and normative commitment.Likewise, Lok and Crowford (1999), Singh (2007) and Maral (2015) found out that there is a positive relationship between organizational culture and commitment.It is also found that the highest relationship of organizational culture is with affective commitment, and this is followed by normative commitment and continuance commitment.That the highest relationship of organizational culture is with affective commitment is a desired situation.This can be interpreted as; there is corporation, fellowship and friendship at these schools, there is a culture with high level of human relations, and in accordance with that there is a high level of affective commitment.The fact that teachers have a high level of affective commitment can be the indicator that they are satisfied with the tasks they fulfill (Dere, 2014); they have motivations for their works (Erturk, 2014;Sharma, Mohapatra, & Rai, 2013); they trust in their schools (Kahveci, 2015); they cling to the objects at school and they are identified with them (Singh, 2007); they are not alienated from the schools (Korkmaz, 2014); they try hard for their school to be an effective one (Ayık, 2007) and their performance are high (Paunonen, Gellatly, Goffin, & Jackson, 1989).That continuance commitment is medium level is an indicator that the teacher, when needed, can leave the school or be absent.Hence, high relationship is an indicator for the teacher to stay in the organization and lack absence (Meyer & Allen, 1991).Besides, the fact that the relationship between continuance commitment and support culture is negative can be an indicator that teachers are not supported at school by school management, effective leadership is not exhibited (Yalınkılıc, 2012); and school management is not thoughtful and has a low performance (Paunonen et al., 1989).A low relationship between normative commitment and organizational culture can be an indicator that teachers cannot fulfill their responsibilities appropriately; they act according to the climate in the organization and criticize the activities of the organization.That relatively highest relationship is with achievement culture is an indicator that they struggle for better, they are target oriented and they take initiatives when necessary.
It is found that task culture predicts affective commitment significantly.All the dimensions of organizational culture explains nearly one fourth of the variance in affective commitment.It is also found out that achievement and support culture significantly predicts continuance commitment.All the dimensions of organizational culture explains nearly one-tenth of the variance in continuance commitment.Support culture predicts normative commitment significantly.All the dimensions of organizational culture explains nearly one-fifth of the variance in normative commitment.Organizational culture predicts affective commitment at the highest level, and then normative and continuance commitment, respectively.In Maral's (2015) study, similarly, it is expressed that organizational culture is a significant predictor of school commitment; and one-third of the change in organizational commitment stem from organizational culture.In Benlioglu's (2014) research, it is found out that organizational support is a significant predictor of affective, normative and continuance commitment, respectively.In their research, Serin and Buluc (2012) indicated that determining and sharing school objectives sub-dimension is a significant predictor of organizational commitment.In Sezgin's (2010) study, it is found that support and task cultures are significant predictors of both affective and normative commitment; the predictor of continuance commitment is bureaucratic culture dimension but achievement does not affect organizational commitment.Chen (2004), Lok and Crowford (1999) put forth the fact in their studies that support culture positively affects organizational commitment.As a result, it is found that task culture underlies affective commitment of the teachers; achievement and support culture underlies continuance commitment; and support culture underlies normative commitment.In general, it can be said that school culture affects the teachers' organizational commitment.
So as to increase the teachers' affective commitment, activities which aim to provide achievement and support culture, in which the works of the teachers are supported and the successful ones are rewarded should be organized.To be able to increase the impact of achievement culture, together with the support culture which predicts normative commitment at the highest level, new regulations should be made so that school administrators can give rewards and they should be entrusted with authority, and the decisions related to career steps of Ministry of National Education should be put into practice.In order to increase continuance commitment, regulations in such personal rights as the wages of the teachers and retirement should be made.Training programmes should be prepared, in accordance with the relationship between school culture and school commitment, related to school administrators who have great share in forming and sustaining especially culture and the teachers that they have impact on.The reasons why the perceptions of the teachers related to school culture is at medium level can be investigated via a qualitative study.Besides, the reasons why the commitment of the teachers with medium level seniority is low can also be investigated via a qualitative study.

Table 1 .
Organizational commitment and organizational culture levels of the teachers

Table 2 .
Comparison of teachers' perspectives of school commitment by school type

Table 3 .
Comparison of teachers' perspectives of school commitment by seniorityOrganizational culture perceptions of the teachers do not show a significant difference according to gender, educational status and specialty variables but show a significant difference according to variables of school type, seniority and length of service at the same school.The perceptions of the teachers related to bureaucratic [t (148) = 2.046; p< .05]andtask[t (148) = 3.844; p< .05]cultureshow a significant difference according to school type variable (Table4).Bureaucratic and task culture perceptions of Anatolian High School teachers are higher than those of Vocational High School teachers.

Table 4 .
Comparison of teachers' perspectives of school culture by school type

Table 5 .
Comparison of Teachers' Perspectives of School Culture by Seniority

Table 6 .
Comparison of teachers' perspectives of school culture by length of service at the same school

Table 7 .
Multiple regression analysis results related to the prediction of affective commitment Predictor variables exhibit significantly positive and medium level relationship with affective commitment (R=51; p< .01).Linear combination of all the dimensions of culture is seen to be predicting affective commitment significantly [R 2 =.26; F (4-145) = 12.585; p<.01].Independent variables explain 26% of the variance of affective commitment.When t test results related to significance of regression coefficients, it is found out that support, achievement and bureaucracy cultures do not have significant impact on affective commitment but task

Table 8 .
Multiple regression analysis results related to the prediction of continuance commitment seen that there are correlations with support culture(r=.-19; p<.05)[when the impact of other predictor variables are controlled (r=.04); p>.05], achievement culture (r=.-24; p<.01) [when the impact of other predictor variables are controlled (r=.-17); p<.05], and bureaucracy culture (r=.18; p<.05) [when the impact of other predictor variables are controlled (r=.21); p<.01] but there is no significant correlation with task culture.Predictor variables exhibit significantly positive and medium level relationship with continuance commitment (R=.32; p<.01).Linear combination of all the dimensions of culture is seen to be predicting continuance commitment significantly [R 2 =.10; F (4-145) = 4.209; p<.01].Independent variables explain 10% of the variance of affective commitment.When t test results related to significance of regression coefficients, it is found out that support, and task cultures do not have significant impact on continuance commitment but achievement (β=-.320;t (148) =-2.120; p<.05) and bureaucracy (β=.222; t (148) =2.619; p<.01) culture have significant impact.

Table 9 .
Multiple regression analysis results related to the prediction of normative commitment When t test results related to significance of regression coefficients, it is found out that achievement, bureaucracy and task cultures do not have significant impact on normative commitment but support (β=.366; t (148) =2.533; p<.01) culture have significant impact.