Abstract
Orientation: Quality education is dependent on the well-being, engagement, performance and retention of teachers. Meaningful work might affect these employee and organisational outcomes.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate antecedents and outcomes of meaningful work among school teachers.Motivation for the study: Meaningful work underpins people’s motivation and affects their well-being and job satisfaction. Furthermore, it is a significant pathway to healthy and authentic organisations. However, a research gap exists regarding the effects of different antecedents and outcomes of meaningful work.Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional survey was used with a convenience sample of 513 teachers. The Work-Life Questionnaire, Revised Job Diagnostic Survey, Co-worker Relations Scale, Work and Meaning Inventory, Personal Resources Scale, Work Engagement Scale, Turnover Intention Scale and a measure of self-rated performance were administered.Main findings: A calling orientation, job design and co-worker relations were associated with meaningful work. A low calling orientation and poor co-worker relationships predicted burnout. A calling orientation, a well-designed job, good co-worker relationships and meaningful work predicted work engagement. Job design was moderately associated with self-ratings of performance. The absence of a calling orientation predicted teachers’ intention to leave the organisation.Practical/managerial implications: Educational managers should consider implementing interventions to affect teachers’ calling orientation (through job crafting), perceptions of the nature of their jobs (by allowing autonomy) and co-worker relations (through teambuilding) to promote perceptions of meaningful work. Promoting perceptions of meaningful work might contribute to lower burnout, higher work engagement, better self-ratings of performance and retention of teachers.Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to scientific knowledge regarding the effects of three antecedents, namely a calling orientation, job design and co-worker relationships on meaningful work. It also contributed to knowledge about the effects of meaningful work on employee and organisational outcomes.
Highlights
South Africa has a high-cost, low-performance education system that does not compare well with education systems in other developing countries, for example, Finland (Prew, 2011)
Schools are often the only formal service provider for young people living in socio-economically marginalised communities, uniquely positioning teachers to support positive psychosocial outcomes of youth living in adverse contexts (Liebenberg et al, 2016)
We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test three non-nested measurement models, namely a five-factor model, as well as two alternative models specified on theoretical grounds
Summary
South Africa has a high-cost, low-performance education system that does not compare well with education systems in other developing countries, for example, Finland (Prew, 2011). Poor teacher well-being and performance in South Africa lead to poor educational outcomes (National Planning Commission, 2011). Several efforts to upgrade teachers’ skills (i.e. teacher education programmes) have been largely ineffective (National Planning Commission, 2011). Quality education depends on the motivation, well-being and retention of teachers and school leaders (Louw, George & Esterhuyse, 2011). Teachers and school leaders (as opposed to systems) are crucial to driving change and shaping the teaching profession (Eyre, 2016). Schools are often the only formal service provider for young people living in socio-economically marginalised communities, uniquely positioning teachers to support positive psychosocial outcomes of youth living in adverse contexts (Liebenberg et al, 2016)
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