The study examined the effects of ethical leadership on school climate and school effectiveness as perceived by teachers working in primary and secondary education institutions. It also sought to reveal the mediating role of school climate in the relationship between ethical leadership and school effectiveness. In line with the aim of the research, the correlational survey model was preferred among quantitative research methods. Hypotheses were formulated to examine the mediating role of school climate in the relationship between ethical leadership and school effectiveness. LISREL software, IBM SPSS 22 programme, and PROCESS v3.3 macro were used to test these hypotheses. The research was conducted using data collected from 450 teachers in the Central District of Muş Province during the 2020-21 academic year. The School Climate Scale (SCS), the School Effectiveness Scale (SES) and the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS) were used during the data collection process in accordance with the research objectives. The construct validity and internal consistency coefficients of the scales were reanalysed using the data obtained in this study. The analyses showed that ethical leadership positively affected school climate dimensions and school effectiveness, except for the leadership and interaction dimensions, which were excluded from the analysis due to multicollinearity issues. It was determined that, among the dimensions of school climate, conflict was found to have a negative effect, while dimensions such as democratic climate, school commitment, motivation for success, and sincerity had positive effects on school effectiveness. Furthermore, analyses conducted to test the hypotheses revealed that all school climate dimensions examined played a mediating role in the relationship between ethical leadership and school effectiveness. It was concluded that the ethical leadership behaviours exhibited by school administrators indirectly increase school effectiveness by creating a democratic environment in the school, strengthening staff commitment to the school, creating an atmosphere focused on success, and supporting sincerity and harmony among staff members.
Gezerler et al. (Fri,) studied this question.