The Mediating Role of School Climate and Organizational Trust between Job Motivation and Job Performance

The proper functioning of schools depends on teacher motivation and teacher performance. The organizational factors influencing teachers' job performance and motivation are primarily school climate and organizational trust. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among job motivation, job performance, school climate, and organizational trust, while accounting for teacher perceptions. Accordingly, the research was designed as a cross-sectional quantitative correlational survey. A total of 345 teachers working at state schools in Konya during the 2024-2025 academic year voluntarily participated in the study. In addition to the demographic information form, the researchers collected data utilizing job motivation, employee performance, school climate, and organizational trust scales. Besides testing the reliability and validity of the measures, using SPSS and SmartPLS 3, analyses such as arithmetic mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficient, and structural equation modelling (SEM) were performed. The findings yield some noteworthy results, revealing statistically significant correlations between the variables that affect each other in different directions and to varying degrees. Most importantly, school climate and organizational trust mediate the relationship between teachers' job motivation and job performance. Taking the research findings into account, the researchers have also made recommendations.