小學教師工作要求與職業倦怠之關聯：職場靈性的調節角色

Relationship between Job Demand and Job Burnout in Primary School Teachers: The Moderating Role of Workplace Spirituality

本研究旨在探討小學教師工作要求及職業倦怠分別與職場靈性之間的關係，並進一步探究職場靈性知覺高低是否對上述關係具有調節效應。本研究參考既有問卷工具，進行選題與修訂，並透過探索性因素分析與驗證性因素分析重新建構「小學教師工作要求」、「職場靈性」與「職業倦怠」三份量表。研究採問卷調查的方式，共回收793份小學教師樣本。資料分析方面，採用結構方程模型進行驗證。考量性別、婚姻狀況與教學年資可能影響職場靈性與職業倦怠，本研究將此三項人口變項納入控制變量處理。研究結果顯示：（1）性別、婚姻狀況與年資三項控制變項在調節模型中對職業倦怠的影響程度較低；（2）工作要求與職業倦怠之間呈現顯著正向關聯；（3）職場靈性與工作要求呈顯著負向關聯，顯示教師感知職場靈性程度越高，對工作要求的壓力感受越低；（4）職場靈性與職業倦怠亦呈顯著負向關聯，即職場靈性感知程度越高，職業倦怠程度越低；（5）職場靈性在工作要求與職業倦怠之間具有顯著調節效果，能有效緩衝工作要求對職業倦怠的負向影響。

This study explores the phenomenon of teacher burnout, a growing issue in the global educational landscape that has raised significant concern in recent years. Teacher burnout is a psychological condition caused by long-term exposure to work-related stress, manifesting as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. While burnout can affect teacher at all educational levels, it is particularly pronounced among primary school teachers, who face multiple stressors stemming from the complex demands of their roles. These demands include not only the extensive and varied responsibilities of teaching, lesson planning, and student assessments, but also the emotional labor involved in managing diverse student needs, responding to parental expectations, and fulfilling performance standards set by school administrations. Furthermore, teachers are often subject to the pressures of rapidly changing educational policies, shifting societal expectations, and a constant need to adapt to evolving technological landscapes. All these factors contribute to an accumulation of stress, potentially leading to burnout, which in turn can negatively affect both the well-being of educators and the quality of education provided to students.
The consequences of teacher burnout extend beyond the individual level. Teachers’physical and mental health are compromised, which can undermine their teaching effectiveness, reduce job satisfaction, and ultimately result in lower-quality educational experiences for students. In the long term, this can have detrimental effects on student outcomes, including academic achievement and personal development. The prevalence of burnout is particularly concerning in primary education, where teachers have a profound impact on students’foundational learning experiences. As such, addressing teacher burnout is critical to ensuring a sustainable and effective education system.
While the direct link between job demands and burnout has been widely recognized, there is less exploration into the role of work-related resources that could potentially buffer the impact of these stressors. One such resource is workplace spirituality, which has gained attention as a potential factor that could moderate the relationship between job demands and burnout. Workplace spirituality refers to the experience of meaning, purpose, and connection in one's work. Unlike traditional resources, such as job autonomy or social support, which focus on external factors, workplace spirituality emphasizes intrinsic motivation, a sense of mission, and personal fulfillment. It is thought to enhance individuals’resilience and internal drive, enabling them to cope better with high job demands. Empirical studies have shown that workplace spirituality is associated with positive outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and improved psychological well-being. However, most existing studies on workplace spirituality have focused on corporate employees and healthcare professionals, with limited research on primary school teachers, despite the potential relevance of spirituality in their work environment.
This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of workplace spirituality on the relationship between job demands and burnout among primary school teachers. To achieve aims, a questionnaire survey was administered, and data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The study first examines the relationship between job demands and burnout, then explores how workplace spirituality moderates this relationship, and as well as controls for demographic variables such as gender, marital status, and years of service to provide a more accurate understanding of the impact of workplace spirituality.
In the process of data collection and analysis, the study revised three existing questionnaires that assess job demands, workplace spirituality, and burnout. The revision process included exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to ensure the reliability and validity of the measurement instruments. The results from the EFA confirmed that the questionnaires demonstrated good reliability and validity, while the CFA results indicated acceptable values for the average variance extracted (AVE) and composite reliability (CR), ensuring the robustness of the instruments.
The hypothetical model proposed in this study suggests that workplace spirituality moderates the relationship between job demands (exogenous variable) and burnout (endogenous variable), with gender, marital status, and years of service acting as control variables. The study employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) using Smart PLS 3.0 software to test the hypothesized model and assess the moderating effect of workplace spirituality.
The analysis revealed several key findings. First, after controlling for gender, marital status, and years of service, it was found that job demands had a significant positive association with burnout, confirming the direct relationship between these two variables. Second, workplace spirituality was found to have a significant negative association with burnout, suggesting that higher levels of workplace spirituality were linked to lower levels of burnout. Third, workplace spirituality was negatively associated with job demands, indicating that teachers who experienced higher workplace spirituality perceived their job demands to be less overwhelming. Importantly, the moderation effect of workplace spirituality was statistically significant, meaning that workplace spirituality moderated the relationship between job demands and burnout. Specifically, as teachers’perception of job demands increased, their burnout levels also increased, but teachers with higher levels of workplace spirituality reported lower levels of burnout, even when faced with high job demands. This suggests that workplace spirituality may buffer the negative effects of job demands on burnout, promoting resilience among teachers.
Further analysis revealed that workplace spirituality influenced both job demands and burnout, but to varying degrees. The path coefficient for workplace spirituality’s effect on burnout was -.60, while its effect on job demands was -.15. This finding indicates that workplace spirituality primarily reduces burnout and indirectly moderates the relationship between job demands and burnout. This suggests that, in addition to external support systems, teachers may benefit from regulating their psychological state through internal spiritual resources to cope with high job demands. The results underscore the importance of workplace spirituality in fostering psychological resilience and well-being among teachers.
In conclusion, this study confirms the moderating role of workplace spirituality in alleviating teacher burnout. It highlights the unique significance of workplace spirituality in the primary education context, where teachers face a wide range of challenges, including the emotional needs of students, parental expectations, classroom management, and curriculum design. Given these challenges, workplace spirituality emerges as a valuable resource for teachers, enabling them to find meaning and purpose in their work and to cope with job demands more effectively. Based on these findings, the study suggests that school administrators should implement targeted strategies to enhance workplace spirituality. These strategies could include organizing workshops on workplace spirituality to help teachers understand and practice the core concepts of meaning and purpose in work, creating a supportive work environment that offers emotional and social support, fostering a culture of open communication and collaboration, and providing flexible work arrangements to reduce time pressures. Additionally, continuous assessment of workplace spirituality and burnout levels can help identify areas for improvement and ensure the effectiveness of these interventions.
The study also proposes two directions for future research. First, while this study explored workplace spirituality as a moderating variable, future research could investigate its role as a mediating variable, exploring how it may directly influence burnout through its effects on job demands and other factors. Second, the moderation model in this study explained 44% of the variance in burnout, suggesting that other important variables may contribute to burnout. Future studies should explore additional factors that may influence burnout and workplace spirituality in primary school teachers.
This study also acknowledges several limitations. It defines workplace spirituality independently of religious beliefs, recognizing that non-religious individuals may also experience workplace spirituality. The dimensions of workplace spirituality examined in this study include perceived meaning, community, and organizational identification, which are not tied to any specific religious framework.