Collegial Organizational Climate Alleviates Japanese Schoolteachers’ Risk for Burnout

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of individuals’ help-seeking preference (HSP) and their collective perception of the organizational climate in school on teachers’ mental health. Previous studies demonstrated that HSP was negatively associated with risk of burnout, suggesting that teachers who hesitate to seek help from their colleagues are more likely to have mental health problems. Thus, the current study hypothesized that a collegial organizational climate would be negatively associated with burnout. To test this hypothesis, we developed a scale to measure schoolteachers’ collective perception of their organizational climate (Study 1), and the newly developed scale was used to assess its relationship with HSP and teachers’ burnout risk (Study 2). The results demonstrated that younger teachers, a low level of help-seeking, and a less collaborative climate increased the risk of burnout. The results also showed a significant interaction effect, indicating that HSP was less closely associated with teachers’ burnout risk if their organization was perceived as having a collegial climate. These findings clearly show how the social environment of a school’s organizational climate can affect schoolteachers’ mental health in Japan.

Subjective Perception of School Openness by Vocational School Teachers in Slovakia

“…Based on the above, it can be assumed that a positive organisational climate has the potential to make achieving a school's goals more manageable (Hashimoto & Maeda, 2021) and since the teachers' satisfaction in the school can increase their productivity and performance quality, school managements should invest time and energy into creating positive both social and physical school environments promoting the internal systems' healthy functioning.…”

“…A range of factors influences the quality of organisational climate -including factors both inside and outside the school -and therefore, each school's organisational climate is unique. Being a subjectively perceived characteristic, it must be pointed out that individual stakeholders can evaluate it differently based on the quality of their interactions within the school environment (Hashimoto & Maeda, 2021), their personalities, experiences, education, social or cultural background, etc. to the extent that there may be individuals who are extremely satisfied with the organisational climate but also teachers, students, or parents that perceive it as harmful.…”

“…functioning, interactions between individuals, and their emotional response and attachment to the organisation.The quality of school organisational climate is a predictor of teacher job satisfaction(Khun- Inkeeree et al, 2021;Hashimoto & Maeda, 2021), which is a crucial phenomenon when the teaching staff's stability is considered, since -as pointed out byLadd (2001) -if the existing conditions are perceived as negative or unsatisfactory, it may lead to teachers' decision to leave the school. Therefore, to prevent teacher fluctuation, measures should be taken in each school to achieve high levels of teacher job satisfaction, i.e.…”

Perceived Organisational Climate in Slovak Vocational Schools

“…It must be noted that organisational climate is a subjectively perceived characteristic, which means that while one teacher perceives it as positive, it can be unfavourable from another teacher's perspective. These teacher perceptions of the organisational climate result from teachers' interactions with the school environment (Hashimoto & Maeda, 2021). Teacher perceptions within a particular school develop naturally based on their experiences and participation in school life and can lead to the feeling of comfort or discomfort at the workplace.…”