An Analysis of the Issue of Burn-Out of School Teachers: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Abstract

Is there any relationship between organizational culture and teacher's burnout in schools? This is a hot question asking for an answer. This research study has been conducted to explore and understand this relationship. Literature provides for a different outcomes from different studies in different settings and countries. However, majority of studies provide for and establish the relationship between organizational culture and burnout. It suggests that poor or unconducive organizational culture where there is a lack of opportunities for promotions, growth and other professional rewards provide an imputes for teachers to quit jobs. Exactly the opposite happens if there are opportunities for growth and development and teachers prefer to stay with their jobs for longer. However, certain findings in different countries challenge this assumed relationship on empirical grounds and suggest that there may be other factors that contribute to teachers' burnout in schools. In the course of this research work, secondary sources of which the majority are books are consulted to establish the assumed relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

Constructing Sustainable Learning Ecology to Overcome Burnout of Teachers: Perspective of Organizational Identity and Locus of Control

“…Firstly, the external locus of control was found to have a significant positive relationship with emotional exhaustion. This aligns with past research which has repeatedly shown that teachers with a more external locus of control, meaning they believe life events are outside of their personal control, tend to experience higher levels of burnout [14,65]. For example, [14] found that an external locus of control was the strongest predictor of emotional exhaustion in their sample of Italian high school teachers.…”

“…This aligns with past research which has repeatedly shown that teachers with a more external locus of control, meaning they believe life events are outside of their personal control, tend to experience higher levels of burnout [14,65]. For example, [14] found that an external locus of control was the strongest predictor of emotional exhaustion in their sample of Italian high school teachers. They hypothesized that teachers with an external locus are more likely to appraise demands as threatening and deplete their coping resources faster.…”

“…There is a complex interplay between organizational identity, locus of control, and burnout in teachers. Teachers with an external locus of control, meaning they believe life events are outside their control, tend to experience higher burnout [14,16,65]. However, organizational identification, or a teacher's sense of belonging to their school, can mitigate the negative effects of external locus of control.…”

“…On the other hand, Ford [13] discovered that when principals supported teachers' psychological needs at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and organizational levels, it reduced teacher burnout and intent to leave, while increasing commitment. Gul et al [14] suggested that an unconducive organizational culture with few growth opportunities increased teacher burnout and quitting.…”

“…Additionally, teachers' perceived locus of control, referring to their beliefs about control over life events, may influence their stress appraisals and coping strategies [14,15]. An internal locus of control has been associated with lower burnout, while an external locus of control tends to be linked to higher burnout [16,17].…”