A study by academics from the Institute of Education and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research sought to compare the wellbeing and commitment of school staff with employees in other workplaces.
In recent months there has been growing concern about teachers’ heavy workloads, long hours and the numbers deciding to quit the profession. However, this study found that teachers and teaching assistants are “no more stressed” about their work than employees in other professions.
The authors of the report pointed out that their findings “do not accord with prior research which suggests school staff express greater job-related anxiety and lower job satisfaction than many other workers”.
Indeed, they reported that employees working in schools experienced “higher job satisfaction and job contentment” than non-school employees.
The study, entitled Are Schools Different? Wellbeing and Commitment Among Staff in Schools and Elsewhere, used data from workplace surveys conducted in 2004 and 2011 to analyse people’s job satisfaction.
Written by Alex Bryson, Lucy Stokes and David Wilkinson, the report concluded that “school staff are more satisfied and more contented with their jobs than ‘like’ employees in other workplaces”.
The academics added: “The differentials are largely accounted for by the occupations school employees undertake and perceptions of job quality.”
The research also found that people working in schools were more committed to their organisations than non-school employees – due to “job quality, human resource management practices, managerial style and other features of employees’ working environment”. The study was based on data from nearly 5,000 public and private sector workplaces, including 406 schools.
- To read Are Schools Different? Wellbeing and Commitment Among Staff in Schools and Elsewhere, go to http://ftp.iza.org/dp11456.pdf
- More information on the research is available on the Institute of Education blog: http://bit.ly/2HUYNZR