Explanation of the Mediating Role of Organizational Inertia and Organizational Silence in the Relationship Between Toxic Leadership and Teachers' Job Performance

The purpose of the recent study was to investigate the mediating role of organizational inertia and silence in the relationship between toxic leadership and teachers' job performance. The research method was descriptive-correlation with emphasis on structural equations. The statistical population consisted of all primary school teachers of Mahabad city (965 people), of which 265 people participated in the research as a sample. Data collection was based on four questionnaires: Schmidt's toxic leadership, organizational silence of Vakola and Bourada, organizational inertia of Haag and Paterson's job performance. The reliability of the questionnaires was checked with Cronbach's alpha technique. The reliability of toxic leadership questionnaire was 0.879, organizational silence questionnaire was 0.866, organizational inertia questionnaire was 0.920 and job performance questionnaire was 0.932. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed based on factor loadings and AVE value. Data analysis was done using SMARTPLS software (version 4) and structural equation method. The results showed that the toxic leadership style has a negative and significant effect on teachers' job performance, but it has a positive and significant effect on organizational silence and organizational inertia (P<0.001). Also, organizational silence and organizational inertia have a negative and significant effect on teachers' job performance (P<0.05). It was also found that the variables of organizational silence and organizational inertia have a mediating role according to the effect of toxic leadership style on teachers' job performance (P≤0.05 and t-value >1.96).