The relationships between workgroup emotional climate and teachers’ burnout and coping style

ABSTRACT

The present study examined the relationship between workgroup emotional climate in schools, teachers’ burnout and coping style. Data were collected from 278 teachers in 19 state elementary schools in Israel. Confirming the hypotheses, there was a positive relationship at the individual level between an other-focused negative workgroup emotional climate and burnout, and a positive cross-level relationship between an ego-focused negative workgroup emotional climate and burnout. In schools with a high ego-focused negative workgroup emotional climate, teachers’ active coping style impacted less on their burnout than in schools with a low ego-focused negative workgroup emotional climate.

KEYWORDS:

• Active coping
• burnout
• passive coping
• teachers
• schools
• workgroup emotional climate

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Israeli Arab public education is more diverse in teachers’ gender than is Jewish public education (73.9% female and 24.6% male vs. 83.2% female and 16.8% male) (The Israeli Parliament 2019).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sondos Shorosh

Sondos Shorosh, MA, was a graduate student in the Department of Education and Psychology at the Open University of Israel when the study was completed. Her research interests include organisational psychology, and emotions in schools.

Izhak Berkovich

Izhak Berkovich, PhD, is a faculty member in the Department of Education and Psychology at the Open University of Israel. His research interests include educational leadership, ethics and social justice in school management, emotions in schools, politics and policy making in education, and educational reforms.