The Impact of Constructive Thinking on Emotional Labour and Job Satisfaction among High School Teachers

Abstract

National Policy on Education (1986) mentions that the status of the teacher reflects the socio-cultural ethos of a society; it is said that no people can rise above the level of its teachers. The government and the community should endeavor to create conditions that will help motivate and inspire teachers on constructive and creative lines. In light of this the present study is done to see if there is any impact of constructive thinking on the emotional labour and job satisfaction of high school teachers. Constructive thinking refers to the ability to relate to others in an effective way (emotional intelligence), solve interpersonal problems in a proper way (social intelligence) and the ability to effectively solve problems that arise in everyday life (practical intelligence) with minimum amount of stress (Epstein1990). Emotional labour, is the display or constraint of emotional expression as part of the work role to meet organizational, social or occupational expectations, it is an integral aspect of working life for many employees (Mann, 1997) and Job Satisfaction Is a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one‟s job or job experiences (Jex 2002). The study was conducted on 100(50 men & 50 women) high school teachers from the schools in the city of Hyderabad. These teachers had work experience of 10-15 years and were in the age group 35-45 yrs. The findings of the study suggest that there is a negative effect of global constructive thinking on emotional labour indicating that if constructive thinking is high emotional labour will be less among teachers. Positive relation is found between constructive thinking and job satisfaction and no significant relation is found between emotional labour and job satisfaction. On the dimensions of constructive thinking it is found that women are higher on behavioural coping which means women indulge more in action oriented thinking, which deals with thinking in a way that promotes effective action. Whereas men are found high on categorical thinking compared to women. This indicates that they view issues in black-and-white terms, without acknowledging shades of gray something like rigid thinking. On dimensions of emotional labour women are found high on deep acting which indicates that they alter the emotions within themselves rather than faking it. Women are also found high on display on emotions which suggests that they are better in expressing their emotion in comparison with men. As the finding of the study suggest the constructive thinking has a negative impact on emotional labour and positive impact on job satisfaction, it can be said by enhancing constructive thinking by training can help to reduce emotional labour and improve job satisfaction among teachers.