Different external forces such as increased demand for quantity public schooling (Ozmen & Sonmez, 2007), incorporating technology to teaching (Argon & Ozcelik, 2008) meeting the requirements of the EU (Erturk, 2008), have pushed Turkish Education System to undergo different types of change. Increasing the rate of schooling, increasing computer literacy by adopting computerized education, adopting constructivist approach in education, and transferring administrative processes into computerized environment (e-school) are some change projects recently initiated by Ministry of National Education (MONE), which illustrate the pervasive change interventions in educational organizations (Aksit, 2007; Argon & Ozcelik, 2008).

            It can be argued that the success of change largely depends on the effectiveness of managing change interventions. In the context of Turkish Education System, the teachers play a very critical role in successfully accomplishing change initiatives. Teachers act like a bridge between principal, students, and parents and become the most essential constituency in the change interventions. Therefore, the backbone of the successful change interventions is supportive and enacting teacher behaviors towards the proposed changes. In this sense, it is essential to understand teachers’ attitudes towards change, and the internal context factors that nurture positive teacher attitudes in order to reach the desired outcomes of the change efforts. This is parallel to several organizational change scholars’ call to focus more on the attitudes of organizational members for successful change interventions (e.g., Clegg & Walsh, 2004; Mohrman, Tenkasi, & Mohrman, 2003).  

         As the change atmosphere is generally accompanied with the fear of unknown and insecurity, it is associated with the teachers’ resisting behaviors (Zimmerman, 2006). The relevant literature indicated that readiness for change is the primary attitude that reduces the resistance and fosters the enacting behaviors of the employees (Armenakis, Harris & Mossholder, 1993). Similarly, ambiguity and fear of unknown caused by initiated change efforts were asserted to be decreased by trusting atmosphere in the organization (Martin, 1998). Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between readiness for change and perceived organizational trust in the school setting.

            In accordance with the previous attitude studies, readiness for change has been investigated as a three-dimensional construct as cognitive readiness for change, emotional readiness for change and intentional readiness for change (Bouckenooghe, Devos, & Van Den Broeck, 2009). In a similar vein, organizational trust has also been investigated under three dimensions as faculty trust in principal, faculty trust in colleagues and faculty trust in clients (Hoy & Tschannen-Moran, 2003). The three-dimensional framework for both constructs was utilized as a theoretical framework for this study.

Therefore, this study was conducted to address the following research question:

·     Is there any relationship between teachers’ intentional, emotional, and cognitive readiness for change and perceived organizational trust in colleagues, in principal and, in clients (students and parents)?

Akşit, N. (2007). Educational reform in Turkey. International Journal of Educational Development, 27, 129-137. Argon, T., & Özçelik, N. (2008). İlköğretim okulu yöneticilerinin değişimi yönetme yeterlilikleri. Mehmet Akif Ersoy Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, December(16), 70-89. Armenakis, A. A., Harris, S. G., & Mossholder, K. W. (1993). Creating readiness for organizational change. Human Relations, 46(6), 681-703. Bouckenooghe, D., Devos, G., & Van Den Broeck, H. (2009). Organizational change questionnaire-Climate of change, process, and readiness: Development of a new instrument. The Journal of Psychology, 143(6), 559-599. Clegg, C., & Walsh, S. (2004). Change management: Time for a change! European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 13(2), 217-239. Ertürk, A. (2008). A trust-based approach to promote employees’ openness to organizational change in Turkey. International Journal of Manpower, 29(5), 462-483. Hair, Jr. J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., & Anderson, R.E. (2010). Multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. Hoy, W. K., & Tschannen-Moran, M. (2003). The conceptualization and measurement of faculty trust in schools: The Omnibus T-Scale. In W. K. Hoy & C. G. Miskel (Eds.), Studies in leading and organizing schools (pp. 181-208). Greenwich, CT: Information Age. Kondakci, Y., Zayim, M., & Caliskan, O. (in press). Okul yöneticilerinin değişime hazır olma tutumlarının okulun öğretim düzeyi, yöneticilerin deneyimi ve okul büyüklüğü bağlamından incelenmesi. İnönü Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi. Martin, M. M. (1998). Trust leadership. Journal of Leadership Studies, 8(1), 68-76. Mohrman, S. A., Tenkasi, R. V., & Mohrman Jr., A. M. (2003). The role of networks in fundamental organizational change: A grounded analysis. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 39(3), 301-323. Özmen, F., & Sönmez, Y. (2007). Değişim sürecinde eğitim örgütlerinde değişim ajanlarının rolleri. Fırat Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 17(2), 177-198. Zimmerman, J. (2006). Why some teachers resist change and what principals can do about it. NASSP Bulletin, 90(3), 238-240.