Organizational insecurity and injustice experiences of school administrator candidates

Abstract

Organizational injustice resulting from discrimination based on union membership or ethnic identity is a serious problem in the appointment of public administrators in Turkey. This study examines the experiences of organizational insecurity and feelings of being discriminated among unionised school administrator candidates who were failed in the oral interview process despite passing the Educational Leadership Assignment exam. In the study, which was designed in the interpretive phenomenological research design, the study group was made up of 20 school administrator candidates identified through snowball and criterion sampling methods. In the interviews conducted through the Zoom platform, data were collected using a semi-structured interview form and then analyzed using the Maxqda. The themes generated in the study were perceptions about the organization and the impact of experiences on the future. The study concluded that prioritizing objective methods, such as a central examination, in the appointment of administrators would increase the feeling of trust toward the administration.