The effects of leader support for teacher psychological needs on teacher burnout, commitment, and intent to leave
| Published date | 04 November 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-09-2018-0185 |
| Date | 04 November 2019 |
| Pages | 615-634 |
| Author | Timothy G. Ford,Jentre Olsen,Jam Khojasteh,Jordan Ware,Angela Urick |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
The effects of leader support for
teacher psychological needs on
teacher burnout, commitment,
and intent to leave
Timothy G. Ford
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies,
University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA
Jentre Olsen and Jam Khojasteh
Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA, and
Jordan Ware and Angela Urick
University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The actions of school leaders engender working conditions that can play a role in positively (or
negatively) affecting teachers’motivation, well-being or professional practice. The purpose of this paper is to
explore how leader actions might bring about positive teacher outcomes through meeting teachers’
psychological needs at three distinct levels: the intrapersonal, interpersonal and organizational.
Design/methodology/approach –Using a sample of over 1,500 teachers from 73 schools in a large,
high-poverty, urban Midwestern school district, the authors applied a multilevel path analysis to the study of
the relationships between the intrapersonal, interpersonal and organizational dimensions of teacher
psychological needs and the teacher affective states of burnout, organizational commitment and intent to
leave the school and/or profession.
Findings –Whereas the intrapersonal dimension works primarily through burnout, the findings suggest that the
interpersonal dimension (teacher–principal interactions) primarilyfunctions to cultivate organizational commitment
among teachers. At the organizational level, cultivating a trusting, enabling work environment where teachers can
buildonexistingknowledgeandskillshadademonstrated relationship to collective teacher burnout and
organizational commitment, but only to the degree that these actions serve to build collective teacher efficacy.
Practical implications –In addressingexisting deficits in supportfor teachers’psychologicalneeds within a
school, school leaders have a significant mechanism through which to affect the attitudes and emotions of
teacherswhich precede turnover behavior.However, addressing teacherpsychological needs shouldbe thought
of as multidimensional–no single dimension(either the intrapersonal,interpersonalor organizational) alonewill
be sufficient.Principals should expect to workboth one-on-one as well as collectivelywith teachers to address
school working conditions which support theirpsychological needs as learners.
Originality/value –Prior studies examining the various working conditions of schools have included many
common constructs, but the authors demonstrate how self-determination theory could be used to unify these
seemingly unique characteristics of school working conditions with respect to how they support (or thwart)
the psychological needs of teachers. The authors also empirically test the relationship of these dimensions to a
wide-range of commonly-used teacher affective outcomes.
Keywords Leadership, Organizational commitment, Intent to leave, Teacher motivation,
Self-determination theory, Teacher burnout
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Maintaining a strong, stable teacher workforce is a pressing problem for school systems in
the USA as well as abroad. When teachers leave their current school for another or leave the
profession altogether, the costs incurred can be substantial. Every year, educational leaders
spend significant time and resources filling vacant positions, addressing shortages and “on-
boarding”new teachers. Conservative estimates place the cost of replacing one teacher in
the USA at anywhere from $9,000 in a rural district to upwards of $21,000 in an urban
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 57 No. 6, 2019
pp. 615-634
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-09-2018-0185
Received 30 September 2018
Revised 11 February 2019
3 April 2019
Accepted 12 April 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
615
Effects of
leader support
district (Learning Policy Institute, 2017). For large urban districts who lose hundreds of
teachers per year, this places the cumulative costs of teacher turnover in the millions. Aside
from money, however, even moderate teacher turnover risks setting back school
improvement efforts, disrupting the growth of teacher professional community, and
impeding student academic learning (Podolsky et al., 2016; Ronfeldt et al., 2013).
As a result, a significant research efforthas been directed in recent yearsat identifying the
various factors which contribute to teacher attrition. In addition to salary, the quality of
working conditions that teachers experience remains an important predictor of teachers’
decisions about whether to stay (Borman and Dowling, 2008; Ladd, 2011). Of course, just
keeping teachersin the building is not enough.There can often be a sizable differencebetween
what a happy, engaged teacher contributes to school climate and student learning and a
dissatisfied teacher who is thinking about or planning on quitting. Teachers who intend to
leave often exhibit greater burnout as well as decreased work effort, motivation and
organizational commitment as a result (Conley and You, 2009; Firestone and Pennell, 1993;
Hakanen et al., 2006). These teacher withdrawal behaviors can, in turn, affect the overall
school climate through strained interactions with coworkers and students (Grayson and
Alvarez, 2008; Kokkinos et al., 2005), and can lead to increased teacher absences, mental and
medical healthcare costs and overall decreased school effectiveness (Grayson and Alvarez,
2008; Leithwood et al., 1999). Thus, as a psychological state that precedes unhealthy and
preventable turnover, tracking teacher intent to leave is arguably more important to school
leaders and policymakers than the turnover rate itself, whichis a lagging indicator of teacher
withdrawal, satisfaction and commitment (Conley and You, 2018).
The working conditions of a school are wide-ranging in scope, but generally refer to:
school leadership and administrative support; the degree of professional community and
shared governance; work and school-related stressors such as high-stakes accountability
policies; and resources for teaching and learning (Ladd, 2011). One particular aspect of
working conditions, administrative support, is routinely cited as a key factor in whether
teachers stay or leave (Cha and Cohen-Vogel, 2011; Podolsky et al., 2016; Urick, 2016).
Administrative support can range from increased planning time and additional learning or
induction/mentoring opportunities, to fostering school structures which enable greater
teacher autonomy, involvement in decision making or increased opportunities for teacher
collaboration; it can also include the emotional, moral and/or instructional support given
through principals’efforts at meaningful interactions with teachers (Brown and Wynn,
2009; Hakanen et al., 2006; Hughes et al., 2015; Lambersky, 2016; Olsen, 2017). In the
scholarly literature, leader efforts in these areas have been linked to positive emotional and
behavioral outcomes for teachers, including decreased stress and burnout (Eyal and Roth,
2011; Lambersky, 2016; Van Maele and Van Houtte, 2015), increased job satisfaction and
organizational commitment (Conley and You, 2018; Firestone and Pennell, 1993; Grissom,
2011; Sass et al., 2011), as well as decreased intent to leave and turnover (Brown and Wynn,
2009; Hughes et al., 2015; Urick, 2016). To date, however, there are few studies which have
attempted to model more comprehensively the ways in which particular emotional states of
teachers (e.g. burnout and commitment) mediate the relationship between a wide-range of
administrative supports and teacher intent to leave (see Martin et al., 2012; Sass et al., 2011;
Skaalvik and Skaalvik, 2011 for exceptions).
Current study
Through the concept of psychological need satisfaction, self- determination t heory (SDT)
scholars in the past few decades have examined how the various social conditions of
schools either enhance or undermine the autonomous motivation of learners within them
(Pelletier and Sharp, 2009; Reeve, 2006). A number of these studies have focused
specifically on how school leaders create the social and normative conditions necessary to
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