Fiscal Management Transparency and its Influence on Teachers’ Organizational Trust in Public Schools of Sabangan, Mt. Province
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22595008Keywords:
fiscal management transparency, organizational trust, school governance, financial accountability, School-Based Management, public school teachersAbstract
This study examined fiscal management transparency and its influence on teachers’ organizational trust in public schools of Sabangan, Mountain Province. Using a quantitative descriptive-correlational design, data were gathered from 251 public elementary and secondary school teachers representing 23 schools. A structured questionnaire measured fiscal management transparency in terms of clarity of budget allocation, accessibility of financial information, stakeholder participation in financial decision-making, and accountability and reporting practices, while organizational trust was assessed through leadership competence, integrity and honesty, fairness of decisions, and communication and openness. Weighted mean described the measured dimensions, Pearson product-moment correlation tested the relationship between the variables, and simple linear regression determined the influence of fiscal transparency on organizational trust at the .05 level of significance. Teachers agreed that fiscal management transparency was evident across clarity of budget allocation (M = 3.82), accessibility of financial information (M = 3.77), stakeholder participation (M = 3.70), and accountability and reporting practices (M = 3.91). Organizational trust was likewise rated positively for leadership competence (M = 3.95), integrity and honesty (M = 3.97), fairness of decisions (M = 3.85), and communication and openness (M = 3.92). Fiscal management transparency had a strong positive relationship with organizational trust (r = .81, p < .001) and significantly predicted trust (β = .79, R² = .62, F = 408.57, p < .001). The findings indicate that open budgeting, accessible financial information, participatory financial decision-making, and accountable reporting are important leadership practices for strengthening teachers’ confidence in school governance, particularly in rural public-school settings.
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