Abstract
This research was conducted to study the association between job satisfaction and the wellbeing of secondary school teachers from Gilgit, Pakistan. A total of 167 teachers (89 males and 78 females) from both private and public schools were recruited for this study. A job satisfaction survey by Spector was administered to participants along with World Health Organization (WHO) wellbeing index. Results showed that teachers’ job satisfaction (pay, promotion, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating conditions, coworkers, nature of work, and communication) was significantly and positively related to their wellbeing. Teachers from public schools have higher job satisfaction and wellbeing as compared to teachers from private schools. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that after controlling the job sector their level of job satisfaction in terms of communication independently predicted their wellbeing.
Introduction
In modern organizations employees are expected to be proactive, resourceful, and responsible for their development at the same time committed to high standard performance. Thus, organizations demand energetic, dedicated, and engaged workers (Bakker & Schaufeli, 2008). However, teachers in the academic profession play a vital role as they are tasked to develop the students’ abilities with needed skills that are significant for their career development (Iordanoglou, 2007). Such expectations make the teaching profession more challenging and stressful (Johnson et al., 2005). The teaching profession experiences a great number of emotional demands as compared to the other professions (Brotheridge & Grandey, 2002). Researchers believe that it is due to the higher level of work-related stress (De Nobile & McCormick, 2007; Klassen et al., 2010).
Although the relationship between wellbeing of employees and job satisfaction is relatively well-studied in other professions, for example, Bowling et al. (2010) conducted a meta-analysis that found positive relationships between both constructs. Similarly, positive perception of the work environment and professional development opportunities (Barbieri et al., 2019), job demand, job resources (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2018), and turnover intentions (Chang et al., 2017). In addition, a comparative study of public and private university teachers was conducted in Pakistan that focused only on job satisfaction including indicators such as salary, promotion, coworkers, nature of work, and communication within the organization (Hameed et al., 2018). Similarly, researchers studied teachers’ wellbeing with the quality of schoolwork life (Ilgan et al., 2015). In another research job satisfaction of teachers was assessed in Lahore. Research findings showed that female teachers were more satisfied with assigned supervision-related work (Iqbal & Akhtar, 2012). Moreover, Rahim & Razzak (2013) studied the relationship between teacher job satisfaction and institutional undertakings in which the main variables were working conditions, principal’s leadership style, and workload. Similar studies discussed job satisfaction with other variables (Raza & Ahmed, 2017; Sahito & Vaisanen, 2017; Shafiq & Fatima, 2016). There is a need to study the job satisfaction and wellbeing of teachers in schools. Although good teaching is believed to be charged with positive emotions (Hargreaves, 1998) that is not always found in practical life due to associated challenges and demands in this profession. The researchers have studied the emotional life in the workplace but little research is carried out in the teaching profession that focuses on teachers’ emotional life (Hargreaves, 1998; Sutton & Wheatley, 2003).
Pakistan is a developing country and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) is a remote region of the country where the development of academic institutions is on a nascent stage. The secondary schools in this region can be classified into two main streams: public and private schools. In general, private schools are more preferred for admission as compared to public schools because of their quality. The public schools are owned by the government which is preferred for employment because of job security and standardized government salaries. The private schools are known to offer attractive salary packages for the teachers, albeit temporary. The different employment benefits to the teachers in these schools have created a disparity of quality teaching services. Hence, the job satisfaction and wellbeing of teachers and its implication on the performance of students in both schools are expected to be diverse. There are very limited studies in Pakistan that express the dynamic relationship between teachers’ job satisfaction and their well-being. Therefore, the identified gap in the scientific literature necessitates this study in a developing country like Pakistan.
The study is significant because it provides a clear understanding of teachers’ wellbeing concerning job satisfaction in diverse school systems resultantly solution may be proposed to bring efficiency in the teaching. Also, this is a neglected area that requires serious attention from mental health professionals, school administrators, and policymakers to enhance the academic performance of students which is significantly associated with teachers’ job performance (Ahmed & Malik, 2019). Teachers are known as pillars of any nation (Nigama et al., 2018). If their wellbeing is not addressed, it would negatively impact the overall national progress. Apart from its practical implications, the present study also has a theoretical contribution. Although the relationship of wellbeing and job satisfaction is addressed in various professions. There is limited research carried out to assess this relationship at the schools’ level. The contribution of this study is sharing experiences from a developing country like Pakistan where multiple school systems prevail with variant quality teaching. Finally, it facilitates national and local academicians and researchers’ understanding of teachers’ wellbeing through job satisfaction.
Literature Review and Hypothesis Development
Job Satisfaction
The literal definition of job satisfaction is a pleasurable and positive emotional state that is the expected positive outcome of one’s job appraisal (Locke, 1976, p. 1304). The most commonly used theories underlying job satisfaction are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1981), Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene theory (Alshmemri et al., 2017), job characteristic model (Hackman & Oldham, 1975), and dispositional approach (Judge, 1997). According to researchers, Herzberg’s two-factor theory is one of the most commonly used theories in job satisfaction research (Dion, 2006). Herzberg’s two-factor theory of job satisfaction primarily focuses on two factors underlying job satisfaction: hygiene factors and motivational factors. Hygiene factors refer to the need for avoidance of unpleasantness while motivational factors refer to an individual need for self-growth and self-actualization (Alshmemri et al., 2017). Hygiene factors include interpersonal relationships, salary, policies and administration, supervision, and working conditions while motivational factors consist of advancement, work itself, growth, responsibility, recognition, and achievement (Herzberg, 1966, 2003).
Wellbeing
The term wellbeing is highly subjective in its nature as a result of different theoretical approaches that defined it in different ways. For example, classical utilitarianism sees it hedonistically, classical liberalism’s connotation is individual freedom, and Aristotelian approaches describe it as living well in a sociopolitical world. Hence, wellbeing has three main characteristics; happiness, freedom, and sociality (Austin, 2020). On the other hand, the World Health Organization assesses an individual’s subjective psychological wellbeing through a specific wellbeing index (Topp et al., 2015).
Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Wellbeing
In general, it is believed that mentally healthy teachers are not only advantageous for the development of their career but also vital for the student’s mental health and academic achievement. Hence, teachers’ psychological wellbeing can be assessed through their satisfaction within the institutional climate, ability to understand students’ mental health problems, their professional readiness to help students with multiple mental health problems (Sisask et al., 2014). If teachers’ wellbeing is neglected, it may negatively influence their ability to address the mental health of the students. In addition, it also reduces their willingness and potential to resolve students’ problems, resultantly emotional distress develops among the teachers and students in the classroom (Kidger et al., 2009). Researchers discussed the teacher-student relationship and its influence on the students’ performance. The results showed that teachers’ wellbeing was positively related to students’ learning as well as their performance on the job (Day et al., 2006). Literature also suggested that teachers with improved wellbeing can help reduce the risk of inappropriate behavior of students in the class (Esposito, 1999). Other researchers found a positive relationship of school climate on students’ achievement (Hoy et al., 1998). The happiness of a teacher is resonated with the satisfactory performance of students in the classrooms that positively influences the students’ learning (Barker & Martin, 2009; Noddings, 2005). According to Pavot and Diener (2004), the construct of the subjective wellbeing of a teacher is closely related to job satisfaction. Teachers, who are satisfied with their jobs, tend to be positive about their lives, have long tenures, and are adaptive (Chiu & Kosinski, 1997). Job satisfaction reduces the burnout emotional collapse, while job disliking can lead to unwanted consequences such as turnover intention, job-related stress, and burnout (Gottfredson & Holland, 1990; Kalliath & Morris, 2002).
Researchers have studied the positive relationship between job satisfaction and wellbeing among schoolteachers across the globe. For example, the relationship of teacher wellbeing with their engagement and motivation was investigated in a Norwegian study where it was found that the wellbeing of teachers predicted their higher job engagement and less motivation to leave the profession (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2018). Another study was conducted in South Africa to assess the teacher’s wellbeing and their performance and commitment in the schools. The study results showed statistically significant relationships between wellbeing and job satisfaction (Hansen et al., 2015). Similarly, the teaching environment is a predictor for the psychoeducational development and school adjustment of students (Haynes et al., 1997). In line with these findings, the present study examined the relationship between subjective wellbeing and job satisfaction of teachers in schools of Pakistan. The first hypothesis of our study is narrated as “Secondary School teachers’ job satisfaction would predict their wellbeing.”
Role of Demographic Variables in Job Satisfaction and Wellbeing
The demographic variables are commonly used to analyze the research problems. One of the important demographic variables is gender. There are various studies in which gender has been used as variables that are studied with job satisfaction and wellbeing. For instance, Koustelios (2001) and Tran (2015) reported that the role of gender is significant in teachers’ job satisfaction while other researchers reported contradictory results, that is, gender differences in job satisfaction were not significant for secondary school teachers (Mabekoje, 2009; Oshagbemi, 2000). Sing and Garg (2014) reported significant gender differences in the wellbeing of secondary school teachers while Schad and Johnsson (2019) found an insignificant role of teachers’ gender in their wellbeing. In these studies, gender has been used as a demographic variable that significantly played a role to describe job satisfaction and wellbeing. Since the results of this demographic variable in different research are inconsistent which enables reconsidering it in a particular perspective. Hence, the following hypothesis is suggested. “There would be gender differences in school teachers’ job satisfaction and wellbeing.”
Method
Participants
A total of 167 teachers (89 males and 78 females) were recruited for this study. The data was collected from four public sectors (85) and four private sectors (82) secondary schools located in Gilgit city the capital of Gilgit-Baltistan. Among them, 108 were married and 59 were unmarried. The education level of the teachers was Masters and Bachelors, 125 and 42, respectively.
Measures
Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS)
JSS is originally presented by Spector (1985).This study has used a job satisfaction survey as a questionnaire which has 36 items. These items were evaluated using nine dimensions of job satisfaction such as pay (e.g., I feel satisfied with my chances for salary increases), promotion (e.g., I am satisfied with my chances for promotion), supervision (e.g., I like my supervisor) fringe benefits (e.g.,The benefits package we have is equitable), rewards (e.g., When I do a good job, I receive the recognition for it that I should receive), operating condition (e.g., I have too much paperwork), coworkers (e.g., I enjoy my coworkers), work itself (e.g., My job is enjoyable), and communication-related to overall satisfaction (e.g., Communications seem good within this organization). There are four items for each of the nine subscales. For each item, there is a choice between “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree,” six choices in all, with which the participants must respond. In this study, Cronbach’s alpha for JSS was .76. In data analysis, we assessed the impact of all subscales of job satisfaction on teachers’ wellbeing individually.
WHO Wellbeing Index
WHO (five) wellbeing index is an instrument that has five items. It is a short form of the original version of WHO which comprised 22 items. WHO-Wellbeing (five) is a generic tool and good screener to assess depression. It is a self-administered instrument, designed to assess subjective quality of life. It consists of five questions relating to cheerfulness, calmness, feeling of vigor, and feeling of being well-rested (e.g., I have felt calm and relaxed). Thus, a 5-point Likert scale, such as 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree), was used to identify respondents’ feelings on the questionnaire that how they feel for the last 2 weeks. In the present study, Cronbach’s alpha for WHO-Wellbeing Index (1998) was .71.
Procedure
To collect data for this study all participants were selected conveniently from different Secondary Schools of Gilgit. Before data collection, institutional consent was taken from concerned authorities. After getting demographic information from participants, both scales; JSS and WHO (five) Wellbeing Scale were administered to the participants during school hours. The data was collected only from consented participants.
Scoring and Statistical Analysis
The manual instructions for scoring were used for both scales. To interpret the data descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, Pearson product movement correlation coefficient, and stepwise regression were applied by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS; V-19).
Results
To assess the role of participants’ demographics (sex, job sector, and marital status) in study variables (job satisfaction and wellbeing), we used an independent sample t-test. According to independent sample t-test results, as shown in Table 1, teachers from public schools have a higher level of job satisfaction (t = 5.6, p = .00) and wellbeing (t = 3.3, p = .00) as compared to teachers from private schools. Other demographic variables like gender of participants (Job satisfaction: t = 0.2, p = .21 and Wellbeing: t = 0.05, p = .95), and marital status (Job satisfaction: t = 1.5, p = .10 and Wellbeing: t = 0.50, p = .60) did not significantly contribute to participants’ job satisfaction and wellbeing. It indicates that the job sector is very important regardless of gender, and marital status of participants’ job satisfaction and wellbeing.
Descriptive and Gender, Job Nature, and Marital Status Differences in Measures of Job Satisfaction and Wellbeing.
Before running stepwise regression, we assessed the relationship between participants’ self-reported wellbeing and job satisfaction. The results of the correlation coefficient showed that pay (r = .31, p = .00), promotion (r = .18, p = .01), fringe benefits (r = .26, p = .00), contingent reward (r = .15, p = .04), operating conditions (r = .23, p = .00), coworkers (r = .16, p = .03), nature of work (r = .17, p = .02), and communication (r = .40, p = .00) were significantly and positively correlated with participants’ wellbeing except supervision (r = .09, p = .21),. It indicates that when teachers’ level of job satisfaction in terms of pay, promotion, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating conditions, coworkers, nature of work, and communication increases their wellbeing also increases.
In the first step of the stepwise regression, the job sector was entered as a control variable because there was a significant difference in wellbeing of teachers between both sectors. In the second step, we have entered all nine facets of job satisfaction. Results indicated that teachers’ job sector significantly predicted (β = .25, p < .01) their wellbeing and it explained 5% variance. All facets of job satisfaction as a second model explained 21% variance in teachers’ wellbeing. Coefficients indicated that only “communication” sub-variable of job satisfaction comes out as a significant predictor (β = .31, p < .01) of teachers’ self-reported wellbeing while remaining facets of job satisfaction: pay (β = .10, p > .05), promotion (β = .05, p > .05), supervision (β = .14, p > .05), fringe benefits (β = .14, p > .05), contingent rewards (β = .01, p > .05), operating conditions (β = .12, p > .05), coworkers (β = .00, p > .05), and nature of work (β = .00, p > .05) couldn’t influence teachers wellbeing (Table 2).
Stepwise Regression Analyses Predicting Teachers’ Wellbeing.
p < .05. **p < .01.
Discussion
This research strives to explain whether secondary school teachers’ job satisfaction may be related to their wellbeing. The finding of this study confirms that secondary school teachers’ job satisfaction (pay, promotion, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, operating conditions, coworkers, nature of work, and communication) significantly correlated with their wellbeing which is consistent with the previous studies (Englezakis, 2001; Jadhav, 2013; Joshi, 1998; Mangal, 1982; Mishra & Srivastava, 1999; Nadinloyi et al., 2013; Srivastav & Jagadish, 1988). Although wellbeing has been discussed in past with different perspectives. For instance, wellbeing of a teacher with low job satisfaction reflects poor mental health (Nagai et al., 2007), while teachers with high job satisfaction exhibited significantly better mental health (Basu, 2011). According to Nagai et al. (2007), there was a higher level of minor psychiatric disorders of a teacher as compared to civil servants. Hence, considering the importance of teachers’ job satisfaction in their wellbeing and professional function, researchers are interested to find out the possible sources of teachers’ job satisfaction. One of the primary reasons for job satisfaction was shorter leisure time (Nagai et Al., 2007). Similarly, some of them have stressed on work environment (Obineli, 2010), while others found (Gupta & Jain, 2003) as a variable of job satisfaction because money is the economic reward that can enhance job satisfaction as it meets not only material needs but also gives workers psychological satisfaction (Demaki, 2012). Moreover, Demaki (2012), Eze (2008), and Gupta and Jain (2003) found promotion as a significant factor of job satisfaction because it is positively related to job satisfaction that improves the confidence of teachers and persuades them to work as a result their productivity and efficiency increases. Obineli (2013) claims that teachers’ gender, salary, teaching experience, and perception of promotion are important but not as influential as teachers’ marital status because married teachers were more satisfied with their job as compared to their unmarried counterparts. Whatsoever the source of job satisfaction, teachers with a state of wellbeing recognize their abilities, cope with their stress of life, and contribute fruitfully to their communities (Agarwal, 2007). Therefore, it is necessary to identify and address the associated factors with secondary school teachers’ wellbeing in both the private and public sector of the country.
However, this study found communication as a part of job satisfaction that significantly predicted teacher wellbeing. It is in line with the findings of Crisci et al. (2019) who identified communication as a major source of teachers’ job satisfaction. Many researchers reported the importance of communication for teachers’ emotional wellbeing (Eldor & Shoshani, 2016; Rajesh & Suganthi, 2013).
Additionally, in this study, Public schools teachers have reportedly higher levels of job satisfaction and wellbeing as compared to private school teachers. Similar findings were also found in India where teachers of Public schools and colleges enjoy a higher level of job satisfaction as compared to the teachers of private schools and colleges (Kaur & Sidana, 2011; Khan, 2012). The possible reasons for the difference between job satisfaction and wellbeing among public and private school teachers are due to the support of ample resources, moral enhancement, institutional integrity, and teachers’ job security in public schools (Gupta & Jain, 2003; Omoyemiju, 2011). On the contrary, the job of the teachers is temporary in private schools of Pakistan who are hired on minimum salaries, thus, high job insecurities. Such factors probably contribute to their low level of job satisfaction and wellbeing as reported by other researchers. Various research supported our findings with work-related factors and psychological factors such as job security, job dissatisfaction, work-reward imbalances, and neglected general health are stressors for teachers (De Frank & Stroup, 1989; Miller & Travers, 2005).
Conclusion
The schoolteachers’ performance is one of the important problems of the education industry in developing countries. In this study, an effort is made to find out the relationship between job satisfaction and wellbeing of secondary school teachers of private and public school teaches of Pakistan. In total 167 respondents participated in this research from both streams of schools. This study has administered Spector job satisfaction survey with WHO wellbeing index and found that teachers from the public reported higher levels of job satisfaction and wellbeing as compared to teachers working in the private schools. After controlling demographic variables, teachers’ job satisfaction in terms of communication independently and significantly predicted their wellbeing. Previous researchers have validated the general phenomenon that satisfied and well-adjusted teachers can think about the wellbeing of their students (Lal & Shergill, 2012). However, these studies did not incorporate the environmental differences of private and public sector schools. From a Pakistani perspective, this study found that job satisfaction and wellbeing of teachers is resonated more in public schools. Therefore, a special focus on private sector schoolteachers is needed, because only professionally satisfied and psychologically well-adjusted teachers facilitate and ensure students’ psychological wellbeing and academic achievement. It is recommended that the government should take serious measures and provide fringe benefits and other services to the teachers in private schools. The disparity of services between the Private and Public school teacher may not only create frustration among the teacher but also influence the overall performance of students in the class.
Limitation, Theoretical, and Practical Contribution
One of the major limitations of this research is that it has taken only the perspective of formal schoolteachers and neglected the teachers from informal schools. Informal schools such as religious and community schools are a reality in the Pakistani schools’ systems in which thousands of teachers and students are engaged. Moreover, in this study, only the school teacher’s perspective has been incorporated but the employer’s perspective is neglected. The employer as an executive may provide useful information regarding job satisfaction and wellbeing of the school teachers. Finally, this study has taken the quantitative approach to explore the issue. This is a typical nature of the issue which need in-depth analyses of the relationship of job satisfaction and wellbeing that can be understood through qualitative research methodologies such as interview, observations, and other sources of hard data to explore the real issue in the education sector.
There is a key theoretical contribution to this study. The previous research has used either job satisfaction alone or with other constructs, not the wellbeing. This study has contributed incorporating the experience from the most neglected profession such as schools teachers. This study contributed to the existing literature that argues that only satisfied teachers can think of wellbeing of students.
There are few practical implications to this study. Firstly, the education industry of the country where both private and public schools have major role need to be distinguished based on their functions. The private schools are very quick to implement the suggested internal changes as compared to public schools. Therefore, policymakers need to bring uniform policies to upgrade the school systems of the country. However, this study provides useful information through research on how significant it is to care about the teacher job satisfaction that can benefit the students’ academic performance. Secondly, it gives policy implication to the executive officers who regulates these schools so that they could bring uniform education policies based on these findings.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
