The implications of the school’s cultural attributes in the relationships between participative leadership and teacher job satisfaction and burnout
| Date | 04 September 2017 |
| Published date | 04 September 2017 |
| Pages | 640-656 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2016-0116 |
| Author | Pascale Benoliel,Anat Barth |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
The implications of the school’s
cultural attributes in the
relationships between participative
leadership and teacher job
satisfaction and burnout
Pascale Benoliel
The School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, Bar-Ilan University,
Ramat-Gan, Israel, and
Anat Barth
Michlalah Jerusalem College, Jerusalem, Israel
Abstract
Purpose –As a result of continuous reforms, increased emphasis has been placed on participative leadership
as a means to improving school and teacher outcomes. However, along with the benefits of participative
leadership comes the potential for strain and burnout, which stem from work intensification. Applying the
implicit leadership theory and the conservation of resources theory, the purpose of this paper is to propose
that differences in school’s cultural attributes will influence the emergence of participative leaders and their
influence on teachers’outcomes of job satisfaction and burnout.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected by survey from a sample of 367 teachers in Israel.
Findings –First, the results of general linear model (GLM) analysis indicated significant differences in the
teachers’perceptions of participative leadership between schools characterized by different cultural
attributes. Second, the results of GLM indicated significant differences in the effects of participative
leadership on teacher burnout across schools characterized by different cultural attributes.
Originality/value –This study has implications for policies involving the design and implementation of
leadership tools for school management. Although research has emphasized the relationship between
stressful job conditions associated with shared decision making and teachers’well-being and job satisfaction,
the volume of comparative work in the educational field shedding light on the impact of school’s cultural
attributes on this question is limited. This study may assist principals in making their schools both more
effective and more responsive to teacher expectations.
Keywords Participative leadership, Conservation of resources theory, Cultural attributes,
Implicit leadership theory, Teachers’well-being
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Asaresultofcontinuousreforms,increasingemphasis has been placed on teacher quality as
the key to educational improvement (Spillane and Coldren, 2015). Substantial interest has
developed in the role of teachers in decisions related to school operation. Research suggests that
participative leadership, defined as joint decision making, or at least shared influence in
decision making by a superior and his or her employees (Koopman and Wierdsma, 1998),
may yield a number of positive effects, including improved school and teacher outcomes,
because it can give employees opportunities to exert control over their work environment
(De Nobile et al., 2013). Also, research has indicated a negative relationship between involvement
in decision making and job stress (Lambert and Paoline, 2008). However, recent studies point
out that participative leadership may also be a source of stress that leads to additional strain
(Benoliel and Somech, 2010) with implications for teacher burnout and job satisfaction.
In spite of an extensive literature on participative leadership, the generalizability of this
literature to positive teacher outcomes has remained inconclusive, suggesting a more
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 55 No. 6, 2017
pp. 640-656
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-10-2016-0116
Received 10 October 2016
Revised 16 April 2017
Accepted 22 April 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
640
JEA
55,6
complex relationship which might be context dependent. Lord and Maher (1991) argue that
culture plays a strong role in the content of leadership prototypes. But to date, research
investigating the role of cultural attributes, as determinants of adaptation to school work
environments characterized by high levels of participative leadership, has been largely
neglected. This study draws upon Implicit Leadership Theory (ILT), according to which
individuals hold a set of beliefs about the kinds of attributes, skills, and behaviors that
contribute to or impede outstanding leadership (Offermann et al., 1994). These belief
systems, variously referred to as stereotypes, are assumed to affect the extent to which an
individual accepts and responds to others as leaders (Hallinger and Truong, 2014).
Therefore, the goal of this study is to highlight school’s cultural attributes as significant
factors in explaining the effect of participative leadership on teacher burnout and job
satisfaction. Specifically, since managerial practices and motivational techniques that are
legitimate and effective in one culture may not be so in another (Walker and Hallinger, 2015),
this study proposes that differences in cultural attributes of individualism-collectivism and
power distance dimensions (Sagie and Aycan, 2003) can influence the emergence of
participative leadership and its influence on teacher outcomes.
This is also in line with the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR) (Hobfoll, 1989),
according to which people seek to obtain, retain, foster, and protect resources. “Resources”
can be social ( friendship), psychological (motivation), personal (skills), economic (budget,
salary), and environmental (cultural values). Resources are valued by the individual and
serve as a means for attaining goals. During a stressful situation, an individual must offset
the loss of one resource with other resources (Hobfoll, 1989). From this perspective, the
study proposes that school’s cultural attributes may play an important role in reinforcing
the positive or negative influences of participative leadership on teacher outcomes.
Our purpose is thereforetwofold. We first proposeto investigate whether differentlevels of
participative leadership are found in schools characterized by different cultural attributes.
Second, we propose to investigate the relationship of participative leadership to the teacher
outcomes of job satisfaction and burnout in schools characterized by cultural attributes of
individualism-collectivism and power distance, drawing upon data collected from state-
secular, state-religious, and ultra-orthodox schools inIsrael. This study may make important
theoretical contributions. First, this study seeks to deepen our understanding regarding the
influences of participative leadership on teacher well-being across diverse cultural contexts.
This is important because the consequences of teacher burnout affect society as a whole in
terms of the costs of absenteeism and attrition (Brown and Wynn, 2007). Second, in focusing
on school’s cultural attributes, we seek to highlight additional factors that could explain
differencesin the success or failure of participative leadershippractices. Third, thereis limited
comparative work in the educational field that sheds light on the effect of school’scultural
attributes regarding how participative leadership affects teacher well-being.
The research questions that guided this investigation were:
RQ1. Do principals engage more in participative leadership in individualistic cultures as
opposed to collectivistic cultures?
RQ2. Are there differences in the consequences of participative leadership on teachers’
job satisfaction and burnout that are attributable to the different cultural attributes
of their schools?
Theoretical background and literature review
As the model of the single school leader is gradually being eroded, more attention is being
paid to distributed forms of leadership through more democratic and participative
approaches (Harris, 2013). The concept of participative leadership is only one of a wider set
641
School’s
cultural
attributes
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