Emotions play a profound role in the workplace, especially in the human service profession.
Service agents, for example educators, are expected to express socially desired emotions in a
service interaction with learners. This direct face-to-face contact with learners requires a lot
of emotions and in order to advance educational goals, teachers perform Emotion Work.
Factors like the individual factor Emotional Intelligence and organisational factors like Job
Autonomy, Supervisor- and Co-worker Support have a profound impact on how Emotion
Work is experienced. Emotion Work has an influence on the experience of Well-Being.
The objective of this research is to determine the relationship between Emotion Work,
Emotional Intelligence, Organisational Factors and Well-Being within secondary schools in
South Africa.
The research method consists of a literature review and an empirical study. A cross-sectional
survey design was used to collect the data. A non-probability convenience sample was taken
from 257 educators in high schools in the Gauteng Province. The Schutte Emotional
Intelligence Scale (SEIS), The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Oldenburg
Burnout Inventory (English version) (OBLI). Scale from the Frankfurt Emotion Work Scales
(FEWS) and Organisational Factor Scale were used as measuring instruments. The statistical
analysis was carried out with the SPSS-programme. The statistical methods utilised in the
article consisted of descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha coefficients, factor analysis (using a
principle components analysis), Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and
multiple regression analyses were used to analyse the data. A factor analysis confirmed two factors for Burnout, consisting of Exhaustion and Mental
Distance; Emotion Work also consists of two factors namely Positive Emotion Work and
Negative Emotion Work, Emotional Intelligence (four factors) consisting of Mood
Regulation/Optimism, Emotion Management/Social Skills, Emotion Appraisal and Emotion
Detachment. The OF (Organisational Factors) and UWES both showed acceptable internal
consistencies.
The analysis of Pearson correlations in this study showed that Exhaustion is negatively
correlated with Job Autonomy, Supervisory Support and Engagement, while positively
correlated with Negative Emotion Work and Mental Distance. Mental Distance is negatively
correlated with Job Autonomy, Supervisory Support and Engagement and positively
correlated with Negative Emotion Work. Engagement is positively correlated to Mood
Regulation/Optimism, Emotion Management/Social Skills, Co-worker Support and
Supervisory Support. Emotion Management/Social Skills is positively correlated to Emotion
Appraisal and lastly Supervisor Support is positively correlated to Co-worker Support.
A regression analysis with Engagement as dependent variable indicated that Positive Emotion
Work, Negative Emotion Work, Mood Regulation/Optimisrn and Supervisor Support in an
educator environment were the best predictors of Engagement. With Exhaustion as the
dependent variable, Negative Emotion Work, Job Autonomy and Supervisor Support were
the best predictors of Exhaustion and with Mental Distance as the dependent variable,
Negative Emotion Work, Job Autonomy and Supervisor Support were the best predictors of
Mental Distance.
Recommendations are made for the educators' profession and for future research purposes. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/1337 |
Date | January 2006 |
Creators | Visser, Christelle Alfrida |
Publisher | North-West University |
Source Sets | North-West University |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Thesis |
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