The effect of principals’ ethical leadership on knowledge hiding behavior of physical education teachers with the mediating role of perceived psychological safety

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of principals’ ethical leadership and knowledge hiding behavior of physical education teachers with the mediating role of perceived psychological safety. This study is descriptive_correlation in terms of the research method. All official physical education teachers of Golestan province (557 teachers) were the statistical population of this research that based on Cochran's formula, 228 teachers were selected as a statistical sample by stratified random selection, and they were answered Ethical Leadership, Psychological Safeand Knowledge Hiding questionnaires. The validity of the research questionnaires was checked and confirmed and their reliability was estimated by using Cronbach's alpha test 0.85, 0.87 and 0.81. The data analyzed in two descriptive and inferential ways. The obtained results showed that the effect of principals’ ethical leadership on the perceived psychological safety of physical education teachers is positive and significant. Also, the effect of principals’ ethical leadership on the knowledge hiding behavior of physical education teachers was negative and significant.  Other findings of the research showed that the perceived psychological safety has a negative and significant effect on the knowledge hiding behavior of physical education teachers. Finally, the effect of principals' ethical leadership on physical education teachers' knowledge hiding behavior was confirmed with the mediating role of perceived psychological safety. Based on the findings of the research, it can be concluded that school principals can provide a positive psychological safety atmosphere by using ethical leadership, which will increase exchanges between physical education teachers and their colleagues, and reduce negative behaviors such as the behavior of hiding knowledge in them.