Organizational climate aspects and principal’s burnout in Southern Israel schools

Abstract

The scientific literature abounds in researches about the impact of the organizational climate on burnout among teachers, but the topic wasn’t explored enough at the principals’ level till the results of the researches of Friedman and Kremer-Hayon were published. These are considered the main premises of the research in this paper which reports on a quantitative research study. The proposed toolset consists of questionnaires validated in the literature, demonstrating stable reliability coefficients and also, being validated in the educational contexts and systems from Israel. Three types of questionnaires are used: one to determine the individual perception of the principals’ communication with the teachers, one to determine the organizational climate and another questionnaire for burnout, addressed to the school principals. In the cross-sectional research, the Israeli Arab teachers who participated in this study were selected from the sample of four schools from South Israel (22 % of total schools) obtaining 120 validated questionnaires. The results of the research highlighted a moderate level of burnout. However, the biggest values appear on the dissatisfaction dimension as long as there is a positive communication, medium to high harmony and interpersonal relationships and a medium level of trust and support among teaching staff.