Collegial Organizational Climate Alleviates Japanese Schoolteachers' Risk for Burnout.

Hirofumi Hashimoto,Kaede Maeda

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.737125

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of individuals’ help-seeking preference (HSP) and their collective perception of the organizational climate in school on teachers’ mental health. Previous studies demonstrated that HSP was negatively associated with risk of burnout, suggesting that teachers who hesitate to seek help from their colleagues are more likely to have mental health problems. Thus, the current study hypothesized that a collegial organizational climate would be negatively associated with burnout. To test this hypothesis, we developed a scale to measure schoolteachers’ collective perception of their organizational climate (Study 1), and the newly developed scale was used to assess its relationship with HSP and teachers’ burnout risk (Study 2). The results demonstrated that younger teachers, a low level of help-seeking, and a less collaborative climate increased the risk of burnout. The results also showed a significant interaction effect, indicating that HSP was less closely associated with teachers’ burnout risk if their organization was perceived as having a collegial climate. These findings clearly show how the social environment of a school’s organizational climate can affect schoolteachers’ mental health in Japan.

Highlights

Several problems need to be solved in Japanese school education, such as bullying, non-attendance, child abuse and neglect, and the necessity for enriching special needs education toward inclusion
While there have been a bunch of studies on burnout risk (e.g., Maslach and Leiter, 2016), especially the schoolteachers’ risk of burnout (e.g., Pishghadam and Sahebjam, 2012; Saloviita and Pakarinen, 2021), the current study mainly focused on the risk of burnout among Japanese schoolteachers and examined both social and individual factors that potentially influence the reduction of risk
Factor analysis indicated that the scale had two factors: collegial organizational climate and closed organizational climate

Summary

Introduction

Several problems need to be solved in Japanese school education, such as bullying, non-attendance, child abuse and neglect, and the necessity for enriching special needs education toward inclusion. Japanese schoolteachers have been required to have the ability to manage their classes and provide individual guidance and assistance to each student It is very difficult for young or novice and older or expert schoolteachers. It is not so hard to imagine that they will be exhausted or have mental exhaustion due to receiving criticism and complaints from their students, the students’ parents, and others, or receiving negative feedback from managers in an environment where schoolteachers cannot or do not support each other In this sense, the current situation in which the educational environment surrounding Japanese schoolteachers can increase the Collegial Climate and Teachers’ Burnout risk of burnout is extremely problematic. This is because it deteriorates the mental health of schoolteachers, and as a result, leads to the lowering of psycho-educational services in Japan

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