Beginning teachers’ work satisfaction, self-efficacy and willingness to stay in the profession: a question of job demands-resources balance?

ABSTRACT

As many other countries around the world, Sweden is currently facing an urgent need for new teachers. Creating sound work environments that can retain beginning teachers in the profession—as well as attract new ones—is one way to address the problem. In order to accomplish this task, research must be able to reflect the complex nature of work environments. In the present study, a cluster analysis of four job demands and five job resources among 328 Swedish teachers in their first year of teaching, resulted in four typical work situations: the advantageous situation (n = 103); the balanced situation (n = 148); the threat situation (n = 34); and the pressed situation (n = 43). Clear differences were found in how teachers in these different clusters perceived their work satisfaction, self-efficacy and willingness to stay, with the teachers in the former two work situations scoring significantly higher than the latter two. The results indicate that teachers can have a very different experience of work at the start of their careers. These findings imply that work environment interventions and induction programmes to support new teachers and prevent them from leaving the profession must be well adapted to the context.

KEYWORDS:

• Beginning teachers
• willingness to stay
• job demands-resources model
• cluster analysis

Data availability statement

Data from this study are not publicly available for ethical reasons but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare under Grant (number 2013-1517).

Notes on contributors

Lisa Björk

Lisa Björk works as a senior developer in organization and leadership at the Institute of Stress Medicine, West Region of Sweden. She has a PhD in work science from the Department of Sociology and Work Science at the University of Gothenburg.

Johanna Stengård

Johanna Stengård has a PhD in psychology from the Division of Work and Organizational Psychology, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University. She is currently working as a researcher at Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, and Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University.

Mia Söderberg

Mia Söderberg is a psychologist and has a PhD in Occupational Medicine. She is a full-time researcher in the research group Epidemiology and Insurance Medicine at the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy & University of Gothenburg.

Eva Andersson

Eva Andersson is a statistician and associate professor of epidemiology, employed at the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy & University of Gothenburg. She is part of the research group Environmental Medicine and Toxicology.

Gunilla Wastensson

Gunilla Wastensson works as a senior physician and a researcher in the research group Environmental Medicine and Toxicology at the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy & University of Gothenburg. She has a PhD in Occupational Medicine.