Relationships Between Workload, Burnout and Job Satisfaction Among Public Secondary School Teachers in Kiambu County, Kenya

Abstract

Burnout and job satisfaction are critical issues among professionals, teachers included. They affect the emotional, mental and physical wellbeing of the teachers and can impact on their efficiency in the profession, especially with the increasing workload. Research has established that job satisfaction and quality productivity among professionals, teachers included, are positively related to emotional exhaustion. This study investigated how workload relates to burnout and job satisfaction among teachers in Kiambu County, Kenya. A descriptive survey and correlational designs were applied. The study targeted a population of 4,447 teachers, out of which 367 were selected through stratified random sampling technique. The study was anchored on three theories namely: the job-demand resource theory, multidimension theory of burnout and the hygiene-motivator theory. Three objectives were explored namely: relationship between workload and burnout among teachers; relationship between workload and job satisfaction among teachers; correlation between burnout and job satisfaction among teachers depending on workload. The study also explored how the relationships between the independent and dependent variables were affected by the extraneous variables. Three instruments were employed to collect data namely the questionnaire, FGDs and the KI interview schedule. The questionnaire that had three sections consisted of the teacher workload scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory -Scale and the Job Satisfaction Survey- scale. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis using STATA version 14.0. Descriptive statistics were presented using frequency tables and percentages. Inferential statistics included chi-square tests and multinomial logistic regression analysis, and they were used to tests the hypotheses. Multinomial logistic analysis was also performed for hypotheses one and two, and each dimension of the dependent variables were treated separately. The qualitative data was also analysed thematically according to the three objectives of the study. All the study hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. The relationships between workload and burnout, and workload and job satisfaction were statistically significant, (χ2=34.87, df=6, p=0.000***) and (χ2=29.81, df=12, p=0.003*) respectively. The multinomial results also yielded a (Pseudo R 2 – 0.3273) in the relationship between workload and burnout, and a (Pseudo R 2 _ 0.1755). Additionally, the correlation between burnout and job satisfaction depending on the workload was also statistically significant (χ2=17.3747, df=8, p=0.026*). Majority of the workload categories were positively related to job satisfaction with the relationship with the remuneration, working conditions, relationship with the colleagues and the relationship with the supervisors. Only the workload category with teachers doing teaching, managing students’ psychosocial issues and doing administrative duties was negatively related to all the facets of job satisfaction. The results demonstrated that high burnout was related to high job satisfaction. Moreover, good remuneration, working conditions, relationship with colleagues, and supervisors made teachers more satisfied with their work despite experiences of burnout. Additionally, qualitative data analysis showed that teachers experiencing burnout had feelings of diminished personal accomplishment and were also less satisfied with the job. Further, the extraneous variables were found to have different effects on the interactions between the independent and dependent variables. The study concluded that workload is strongly and positively related to burnout and job satisfaction. The study recommends further research on how to address workload issues and use other strategies such as workplace counselling in order to reduce burnout and improve job satisfaction.