Psychological Effects of Job Burnout on Technical Education Lecturer’s Job Engagement and Performance in Nigeria Universities

Abstract

Productivity in any organization is dependent on workers’ performance. The wellbeing of workers in any organization is therefore very essential for effective performance. This study explores the psychological effects of job burnout on Technical Education lecturer’s job engagement and performance in Nigeria universities. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The study was guided by three research questions and two hypotheses were tested. Adapted validated scales were employed for data collection in the study with an overall reliability coefficient of .90. The population for the study comprised all Technical Education university lecturers in Nigeria. Data collected in the study was analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation (SD), Correlation matrix (Pearson Product Moment Correlation, PPMC), and Multiple regression analysis. The study found a moderate and positive correlation between job burnout and job engagement (r = 0.32; p ˃ 0.05), but a very low correlation between job engagement and performance (r = .01; p ˂ 0.05) among the lecturers. Furthermore, the study found that job burnout (β= .324; p ˃ 0.05) has a non-significant effect on lecturers’ job engagement but a significantly negative psychological effect (β= -.651; p ˂ 0.05) on their job performance. It was concluded that job burnout contributes in no small measure to stress of the lecturers which seemingly has undesired implications on their levels of job engagement and performance. It was therefore recommended that university management teams across the country as well as important stakeholders in the education sector should pay rapt attention to Technical Education lecturers’ wellbeing by introducing measures and work strategies which could reduce job burnout and relatively low stress experience at work.