An Analysis of the Relationship among Teachers' Team Learning, Moral Commitment, and Career Commitment Using Structural Equation Modeling

Received : 15.11.2021 Revision : 25.12.2021 Accepted : 09.02.2022 The primary purpose of this study is to shed light on the direct correlation found between team learning skills and teachers' moral commitment and to use moral commitment as a tool to reveal the indirect effect of these team learning skills on teachers' career commitment. Keeping this purpose in mind, three different scales (the Learning School Scale, Moral Commitment Scale, and Career Commitment Scale) obtained data via Google Forms from 448 teachers working in the province of Düzce in northwest Turkey during the spring semester 2020-2021 academic years. The SPSS 25 and AMOS21 statistical software programs analyzed the data gathered in this study, and structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses generated from the data. Results obtained from programs show that while team learning doesn't directly predict teachers' career commitment, it indirectly predicts career commitment due to moral commitment. Moral commitment is the mediator variable that uncovers the relationship between team learning and career commitment (indicating complete mediation).


INTRODUCTION
Although approaches to learning organizations have been articulated by various theorists, these approaches became a subject of widespread interest and then started to be seen as important, a topical idea that directly impacted organizations following the release of Peter Senge's (2011) book The Fifth Discipline (Edmondson & Moingeon, 1998;Garvin et. al., 2008;Jerez-Gómez et al., 2005). This learning aspect of organizations constitutes an essential part of a dynamic environment that fosters creativity, aids the organization in comparing previous information with newly-acquired information to make any necessary changes or modifications, and allows workers to acquire new skills relating to said changes (Senge, 2011). The reason that approaches to learning organizations are given so much attention in academic research and the ongoing process of strengthening organizations' management practices is that it will contribute to solving organizations' administrative and bureaucratic issues. That is to say; organizational learning is a particular set of behaviors that leads people to learn current practices and up-to-date information related to their field and helps them to implement these practices effectively (Huysman, 2000;McGill et al., 1992).
The concept of a learning organization is commonly used in the relevant academic literature, especially for organizations trying to survive in an increasingly competitive environment (Zare et al., 2001). Accordingly, learning organizations embrace the idea of constant learning and dynamic progress in their respective field to retain a competitive advantage over similar organizations (Appelbaum & Gallagher, 2000;Bierley & Hämäläinen, 1995). There are many significant benefits to establishing a learning organization; they include developing strategies to cope with complex situations and acquiring the flexibility to operate under ever-changing circumstances (Hannah & Lester, 2009;Robinson, 2002). The interactions within learning organizations include sharing information and experience, benefiting and learning from each other's strengths, the transfer of expertise, and the drive to constantly learn and improve oneself (Saadat & Saadat, 2016).
In addition, other hallmarks of learning organizations include their creation of an organizational climate and policies which engender positive outcomes and the formation of a learning culture that is seamlessly integrated into company life and becomes an inseparable part of the organization (Garavan, 1997). Every organization establishes its own culture and values. Organizations that possess a culture and climate based on learning, encourage information sharing, advocate open communication among their stakeholders, and create a culture that supports learning as one of their primary values are considered learning organizations (Sudharatna & Li, 2004).
Just as learning organization culture imparts a skill set to leaders and their subordinates, which helps them figure out how to react in complex and unpredictable circumstances, it also encourages organizational leaders and workers. It provides them with the opportunity to learn new skills (Sheaff & Pilgrim, 2006). Individual development of stakeholders is, alongside the acquisition of new skills and information per organizational goals, a sine qua non for a learning organization. This culture provides both organizations and their employees with the opportunity to change (Farrukh & Wahed, 2015); it also leads to positive outcomes such as increased organizational and individual performance (Power & Waddell, 2004;Watkins & Marsick, 1996). A review of the considerable body of literature on this topic identifies the ability to cope with and quickly adapt to changes and transfer knowledge effectively as two distinguishing characteristics of learning organizations (Skuncikiene et al., 2009). Also, Senge (2011) suggests that another essential characteristic of a learning organization is its ability to turn learning into an integral part of its culture to achieve its long-term goals. Garvin (1993) also touches on this topic, saying that the culture fostered by the presence of these long-term goals leads to employees acquiring new and valuable skills, transforming knowledge into skills, and gaining insight into an organization's vision. Learning organizational culture includes effective dialogue and a continual process of inquiry within the organization, continuous and collaborative teamteaching links among organizational subunits, and leadership skills that support and encourage personnel (Hussein et al., 2016).
There are a variety of organizational learning models currently found in the literature. A model prepared by Pedler et al. (1989) emphasizes certain factors such as internal transformation, learning environment/climate, individual development, and participation in organizations' decision-making processes. On the other hand, strategic thinking, vision, passion for the job, leadership qualities, effective communication, advancement, innovation, change management, and intellectual capital are some of the concepts frequently referred to in the definition of learning organizations in Phillips's model (2003). Slater and Narver (1995) developed a model that designated climate and culture as the two principal components of a learning organization. Kerka's model (1995) suggests that conceiving learning as a continuous action and promoting actions that encourage the adoption of this mindset are the hallmarks of a learning organization. Senge (2011) designed five disciplines for learning organizations in his model: personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking. Senge (2011) also notes that organizations only learn when individuals learn. However, individual learning may not be enough on its own for an organization to become a learning organization. People who have attained a high level of personal mastery have an innate drive to learn continuously. These people possess a shared vision which enables them to internalize a sense of shared responsibility. Another vital component of a learning organization is team learning; according to Senge (2011), team learning is a collective discipline that involves various essential elements such as open inquiry, collaborative thinking, and establishing dialogue. Garvin et al. (2008) maintain that several indicators reveal whether or not an organization is a learning organization. The indicator at the top of the list is the presence of an organizational climate that promotes and encourages learning. In such a corporate climate, stakeholders feel comfortable holding different opinions from their colleagues, taking responsibility for their mistakes, producing diverse views on issues, taking risks, and setting aside time to contribute to the organization's development. Another important indicator is leaders' readiness to urge their workers to learn. In organizations where such an environment exists, workers are enthusiastic and willing to learn; they also use new information and the sum of what they've learned to help the company and actively listen and question assumptions during team learning. Table 1 compares the typical characteristics of both traditional and learning organizations. Organizational learning is a subject of particular concern to schools as they are organizations where intensive learning occurs. As schools are large organizations of great societal importance, it is imperative that school personnel exhibit both individual and team learning behaviors. In learning schools, team learning is widespread, and teams generally collaborate with other groups on projects; in this way, each individual will feel valued and consider themselves an essential part of the system (Memduhoğlu & Kuşci, 2012

Moral Commitment as a Component of Organizational Commitment
The relevant body of literature includes many definitions and classifications related to organizational commitment. Balay (2000) defines organizational commitment as an employee's partiality towards and embracing their organization's goals and values. One of the most widely used classifications of organizational commitment in the literature belongs to Etzioni (1961). The classification done by Etzioni encompasses three main commitment types within organizations: Moral commitment, calculative commitment, and alienation commitment. Moral Commitment constitutes an integral part of organizational commitment. According to Etzioni's classification, it refers to pursuing aims that are beneficial for both the organization and society; moral commitment also enables personnel to more deeply internalize organizational goals and ambitions (Hornung, 2010;Penley & Gould, 1988). Morally committed individuals will devote themselves more fully to their jobs due to this deeply-felt moral commitment.
Calculative (utilitarian) commitment refers to situations where employees remain committed to their organization because they contain various benefits (Güney, 2001).
Alienation commitment, on the other hand, occurs when an individual cannot cut ties with an organization for various reasons even though they no longer have a psychological attachment to it (Bayram, 2005;Doğan & Kılıç, 2008). However, Etzioni's model identifies a third type, moral commitment, as the most crucial type of commitment; calculative (utilitarian) comes second in terms of importance while alienating (forced) commitment is seen as the most minor. In addition, alienation commitment is associated with negative organizational attachment while moral commitment is, in contrast, related to positive passion; calculative/utilitarian commitment falls somewhere in between (Ergün and Çelik, 2019). Morally committed individuals consider organizations' goals and values more important than their personal, professional interests (Starling, 1968).

Career Commitment
Career commitment can be defined as the desire to act per the goals and values prescribed by one's chosen profession and the ability to actively perform one's professional roles (Eroğlu, 2007). Khan (1992) further defines career commitment as an employee's complete and absolute commitment to their professional roles. Career commitment is an important variable that directly affects employees' work performance and the quality of products they create (Turhan et al., 2012). Like this, career commitment is closely related to employees' sense of professional dedication. Many studies in the current body of literature draw attention to the positive correlation between organizational commitment and a number of variables, including career commitment, productivity, performance, and job satisfaction, and also emphasize the negative correlation between organizational commitment and several other variables such as job burnout (Albdour & Altarawneh, 2014;Demerouti et al., 2001;Khalid et al., 2015;Nazir & Islam, 2017). Hence, career commitment can be considered a significant factor in supporting many kinds of employee development.
Career commitment also produces positive outcomes for teachers and employees working in other sectors. Some of the essential effects include marked improvements in students' cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development, increased academic performance, and a greater degree of socialization (Butucha, 2013). Kozikoğlu and Senemoğu (2018) suggest that to obtain these outcomes, teachers must value being a teacher, have a desire to remain in the teaching profession, and be proud of being a teacher.
Furthermore, teachers who perceive a high level of professional dedication will value their students' progress as much as they value their development (Picard & Kutsyuruba, 2017).
Findings from various studies in the literature show a link between teachers' organizational learning and their organizational commitment (Nguni et al., 2006;Moloi, 2010;Rahman & Awang, 2013;Tibet, 2015). 3. Does teachers' moral commitment to a school play a mediating role in the relationship between their team learning and career commitment? Figure 1 contains the model used in this study.

Research model
A subtype of quantitative research design known as a relational survey model investigated the relationship among teachers' team learning levels, moral commitment to school, and career commitment, as it dovetails rather nicely with the aim of the study. This type of model aims to determine whether or not there is a relationship between two or more variables and, if there is, determine the extent of that relationship (Karasar, 2009 were science and math teachers, and 37 (8.5%) were fine arts and physical education teachers.

Data Collection Tools
Three different scales collected data for this study: The Team Learning Scale, the Moral Commitment Scale, and the Career Commitment Scale. More details regarding these data collection tools are below.

Team Learning Scale
The Team Learning Scale is the first of four sub-dimensions, or sub-scales, of the

Moral Commitment Scale
The Moral Commitment Scale is the first of three sub-dimensions, or sub-scales, of the Organizational Commitment Scale, initially created by Penley and Gould (1988) and updated and adapted by Ergün and Çelik (2019); the moral commitment scale subdimension consists of five different items while the entire organizational commitment scale has fifteen items in total. The Cronbach's alpha value of the adapted version of the Moral Commitment Scale sub-dimension was found to be 0.92, while the overall alpha value found for this study was 0.5. The Moral Commitment Scale sub-dimension accounts for 23.61% of the total variance, while the full scale accounts for 79.99%.

Career Commitment Scale
The Career Commitment Scale was developed by Kozikoğlu and Senemoğlu (2018) to measure teachers' levels of career commitment. After conducting exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), a total of 20 items and three dimensions were created. These dimensions are job commitment, dedication to students, and occupational dedication, and they account for 52.27% of the total variance. The reliability coefficients of these three sub-dimensions were found to be 0.92, 0.86, and 0.70, respectively, while the reliability coefficient of the scale in its entirety was 0.90. In this study, the reliability coefficient was 0.94 for the first sub-dimension (profession commitment), 0.90 for the second sub-dimension (dedication to students), and 0.79 for the third sub-dimension (occupational commitment). The reliability coefficient for the full scale in this study was 0.93.

Data Collection and Analysis
Research data were collected digitally via Google Forms due to social distancing measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The digital forms were sent as links to administrators and teachers working in various schools in the province of Düzce, Turkey, via WhatsApp groups; the data was collected in March and April of the 2020-2021 academic years. The data gathered from 448 teachers contained fifteen extreme values; they were removed from the data set altogether, leading to a data loss rate of approximately 3.5% for this study. The SPSS 25 and AMOS statistical software programs were used to analyze the remaining data. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to analyze correlation(s) between and among variables. The stepwise regression method was used to build the model by adding team learning first and moral commitment second. The final step consisted of using structural equation modeling (SEM) to find the mediation effect.

Ethical Considerations
In this study, all rules stated to be followed within the scope of "Higher Education

Findings of Correlation and Stepwise Regression Analysis
At this stage, stepwise regression analysis was conducted to determine the extent of the correlation among variables and to what degree team learning behaviors and moral commitment to school predict career commitment. Before looking at this data, the results of the correlation analysis can be found below.

Measures of Correlation among Variables
As indicated in Table 2, the correlation between team learning and moral commitment was found to be positive, moderate, and statistically significant (r=0.38, p<0.01), the correlation between team learning and career commitment was positive, low, and statistically significant (r=0.15, p<0.01), and the correlation between moral commitment and career commitment was found to be positive, low, and statistically significant (r=0.29, p<0.01). Table 3 displays findings detailing the extent to which the independent variables predict the dependent variable. team learning on its own predicts career commitment with a beta value of 0.146 (β = 0.14).
However, in the second step of the analysis, the β coefficient of team learning started to decrease. This decrease can be interpreted as an indicator that moral commitment (added to the model in the second step) plays the mediator variable between team learning and career commitment. The fact that the p-value from the Sobel test was 0.00 corroborates the idea that moral commitment is the mediator variable. Thus, it is evident that path analysis is required to determine the extent to which the independent variable (team learning) predicts the dependent variable (career commitment), using moral commitment as the mediator variable.

Results of Path Analysis
Path analysis effectively determines the predicted variable's direct and indirect predictive strength of predictor variables on the predicted variable. In this study, the path analysis was conducted using the AMOS statistical software program to determine the extent to which the predictor variables accounted for the predicted variable (career commitment) in light of the mediator variable. The path analysis model can be found in   Goodness-of-Fit Indices for the Model Given the standardized path coefficients in Figure 2, it can be seen that team learning negatively and directly predicted career commitment with a β value of -0,16. Team learning also predicted moral commitment with a β coefficient value of 0.45, while moral commitment itself predicted career commitment with a β coefficient value of 0.66. Multiple fit indices were used to determine the validity and sufficiency of the model. In this study, the chi-square goodness-of-fit test, the goodness-of-fit index (GFI), the adjusted goodnessof-fit index (AGFI), and the comparative fit index (CFI) were used. The normed fit index (NF), the incremental fit index (IFI), and the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) were also calculated. The final step consisted of analyzing the standardized root mean square residual (SRMR), the parsimony normed fit index (PNFI), and the parsimony goodness-of-fit index (PGF). The results of these goodness-of-fit tests can be found in Table   4.
The results of the goodness-of-fit tests show that all test scores fell within the acceptable range (χ2=278,988;df=101;χ2/df = 2.762,RMSEA= 0.063,CFI= 0.95,GFI= 0.93,AGFI= 0.90,IFI= 0.95,SRMR= 0.046,NFI= 0.93,PNFI= 0.78). The goodness-of-fit indices reveal that the model fit is either perfect or acceptable, which proves that the fit indices for the model lie within acceptable ranges (Hu and Bentler, 1999;Schermelleh-Engel et.al, 2003;Sun, 2005). Table 5 shows the extent to which independent variables predict the dependent variable through standardized path coefficients. The direct, indirect, and total predictive levels and effects of the independent variables on the dependent variable can be found in Table 6.

DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, and RECOMMENDATIONS
The study's findings indicate a positive and statistically significant correlation between team learning and teachers' moral commitment to their school. Having teachers who are in proper pedagogical practices at school and with their students, work collectively and in a disciplined manner, and collaborate with their colleagues to pursue a shared vision and set of goals is an optimal and highly desirable situation for any school. Team learning doesn't require team members to be similar, but accommodation and adaptation are essential. Team members' ability to think and act together as a living system is a fundamental component of team learning (Senge et al., 2014). In addition, the ability to learn as a team is also an indispensable component of learning organizations. A review of the considerable body of literature on this topic reveals that learning school culture and team learning positively affect many organizational processes and improve both the quality and the permanence of learning within schools Keefe & Howard, 1997;Kools et al., 2020). Tolwinska (2019) suggests that teachers need to have high levels of trust in each other and maintain high levels of inter-and intra-departmental contact to learn from each other and learn as a team. However, many schools need to strengthen this aspect of their school culture. Park et al. (2005) found that collaboration among team members enhances organizational reliability and commitment to both the team and the school.
Similarly, Dee et al. (20 6) also pointed out that attitudes toward team learning and teaching and concrete shows of support from the school administration positively affect teachers' level of Commitment to the school.
Another important finding of the study is a positive and statistically significant correlation between teachers' moral commitment to their school and their overall career commitment. As teachers' moral commitment increases, their career commitment increases in kind. According to Etzioni's theory (1961), moral commitment to an organization is a robust type of commitment that requires internalizing organizational values and norms and committing fully to one's professional role. Studies highlighting the link between teachers' drive to learn and moral commitment are present in the literature (Kwo, 2010). Beyer (1991) examined the association between teachers' ability to become more professional and their levels of moral commitment and suggests that there should be more of a focus on moral commitment during teacher training and education to increase the quality of teaching practices. In addition, teachers' possession of a strong sense of the moral commitment constitutes a substantial component of professionalism (Santoro, 2011). Teachers' strong commitment to a school is accompanied by a positive effect on many organizational processes. Several studies in the literature corroborate this claim by revealing a positive relationship between moral commitment and teachers' organizational commitment and organizational citizenship (Karacaoğlu & Güney, 2010;Tekin, 2019), administrative efficiency (Kaya et al., 2014), occupational motivation (Çınar, 2016;Memişoğlu, & Kalay, 2017;Uzunpınar, 2019), and job satisfaction (Gedik & Üstüner, 2017).
The findings also reveal that teachers' team learning behaviors predict their career commitment through the influence of the mediator variable (moral commitment) instead of expecting it directly. The moral commitment was identified as a mediator variable based on the direct, indirect, and total effects of independent variables on the dependent variable, the decrease in the beta score in the second step of stepwise regression analysis, and the significance level of the Sobel test, all of which indicate complete mediation. This strong sense of commitment and belonging, brought about by teachers' experiences with team learning, is thought to increase teachers' levels of career commitment. Full commitment to the values and norms of the profession has been shown to create a strong mediator effect which strengthens teachers' levels of career commitment. Consequently, teachers' moral commitment, one of the positive organizational outcomes that arise from team learning skills used in a corporate learning context, is an indirect and statistically significant predictor of their career commitment. This study sample consists of teachers working in Turkey; awareness practices and studies that focus on social aspects of schools such as teamwork, collaboration among different departments, cooperation amongst colleagues, and intergenerational solidarity and learning are believed to contribute to various school processes positively. Enhancing the culture of cooperation, solidarity, team learning, and production within a school and creating an ecosystem in line with these goals will generate many favorable outcomes. Effective leadership and the ability of school leaders to govern may play an essential role in creating a team learning culture. Teachers becoming part of a culture of team learning and production is a process that can be expected to enhance professional motivation, dedication, job satisfaction, and the overall success rate of students.
The sample of this study is limited to teachers working in different schools in one city of Turkey. Therefore, collecting data from several other regions and provinces around Turkey would provide researchers with a more significant number of data sets to analyze to make comparisons among schools and enable them to make inter-regional comparisons, both of which are fruitful avenues for further research.