Modeling Structural Relationship Between Perceived Organizational Support and Quality of Work Life Among Secondary School Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

Teachers’ quality of work life (QWL) is an umbrella concept that refers to the degree of satisfaction a teacher experiences with respect to his or her job and the overall work situations which are influenced by three factors of organizational support including participation in decision making, fairness of rewards, and growth opportunity. The present study examined the relationship between perceived organizational support (POS) and QWL among secondary school teachers of English as a foreign language. To this end, employing a descriptive correlational method, the researchers selected a number of 173 male and female teachers who were selected via probability multistage cluster sampling from among a population which consisted of EFL teachers at secondary schools in Tehran (N=1826), Iran. Data collection instruments included an attitude survey based on Allen, Armstrong, Reid, and Riemenschneider (2008) model of POS as well as Walton’s (1973) QWL questionnaire. Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. The relationship between POS and QWL was found to be .71. In other words, the three dimensions of POS could affect the QWL by 71 percent. More specifically, the three dimensions of participation in decision making with 21.4, fairness of rewards with 24.7, and growth opportunity with 64.1 percent could be used to predict the QWL. These findings are important in that they demonstrate that POS is significantly related to the QWL of EFL teachers which can in turn significantly affect the performance of these teachers at schools.