Teachers' work engagement : a deeper understanding of the role of job and personal resources in relationship to work engagement, its antecedents, and its outcomes

Abstract

Dutch schools for secondary education face many challenges: Teaching is considered one of the most stressful occupations and the burnout levels of teachers are relatively high. Also, the work satisfaction of teachers in secondary education is the lowest compared with the total educational sector. The main factors that influence the work of teachers in secondary education are a high work load, a low level of autonomy, little support from the leader, and poorly implemented HRM. Although research has shown that teachers are more engaged compared with workforces in other industries, several factors may influence their engagement level. This dissertation contains six studies in which factors are examined that can influence work engagement and outcomes such as organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB) and innovative behaviour. The roles of goal orientation, LMX, the interaction with pupils, HR practices, autonomy, occupational self-efficacy, and high commitment HRM are examined as resources in these relationships. The findings showed that the interaction with pupils and HR practices are positively related to work engagement, and HR practices weakened the relationship between the interaction with pupils and work engagement. Goal orientation and LMX are moderators in the relationship between burnout and work engagement. Occupational self-efficacy and high commitment HRM mediated the relationship between work engagement and innovative behaviour, and LMX and autonomy weakened the relationship between respectively OCBI and OCBO. This suggests that employees need job and personal resources in their work that stimulate their work engagement, but when they are engaged, every examined job or personal resource that is available in the context might weaken teachers’ work engagement, or outcomes of work engagement. Specifically for teachers, it seems as though they are so engaged with their teaching that every job resource that has nothing to do with teaching itself decreases their work engagement and outcomes of work engagement. Exceptions are HC-HRM and occupational self-efficacy, because these have a closer relationship with the primary tasks of teachers’ work. All in all, the findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of resources in relationship to work engagement, its antecedents, and its outcomes.