The Role of Charismatic Leader in School Culture

This study aims to investigate the level at which the charismatic leadership style of school principals perceived by teachers predicts the school culture. Research Method: The correlational model, a quantitative research model, was conducted. In this study, 490 teachers participated in Uskudar, Istanbul. The School Culture Scale (Terzi, 2005) and the Charismatic Leadership Scale (Conger & Kanungo, 1994) were used to measure the teacher’s perception of the charismatic leadership and school culture. Correlation analysis was performed to identify the relationship between the charismatic leadership style and the school culture perceived by the teachers. Regression analysis was performed to determine whether the charismatic leadership style was a predictor of school culture. Findings: The findings obtained after the analyses showed that there was a significant positive relationship between the charismatic leadership and the success culture, support culture, mission culture, and bureaucratic culture and that the charismatic leadership style was a predictor of, respectively, the success culture, support culture, mission culture, and bureaucratic culture. The charismatic leadership explains 29% of the total variance in mission culture, 35% of the total variance in support culture, 36% of the total variance in success culture and 5% of the total variance in bureaucratic culture. Implications for Research and Practice: The charismatic leadership role of school principals in shaping the school culture should be emphasized. It may be suggested that charismatic leaders who manage the school culture effectively can be successful.