RETENTION OF EDUCATORS: THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP, EMPOWERMENT AND WORK ENGAGEMENT

Abstract

The teaching context in South Africa is continuously transforming. Consequently, there are numerous challenges that educators have to face, such as a lack of resources and funds, teacher turnover, dealing with discipline, lack of learner motivation and shortage of skilled personnel. It can be expected that educators will be negatively influenced by the above challenges and will therefore show turnover propensity, require the education profession to re-think and re-design its existing management processes in order to retain staff. The aim of this research was to investigate the extent to which leader empowerment behaviour (LEB), psychological empowerment (PE) and work engagement (WE) predict educators’ intentions to leave (IL) the teaching profession. A cross-sectional survey design was used to achieve the research objectives, utilising four standardised questionnaires, namely the Leader Empowering Behaviour Questionnaire, Measuring Empowerment Questionnaire, Work Engagement Survey and Intention to Leave Questionnaire. Results showed that significant positive correlations were found between LEB, PE, WE and negative relations between IL and the other constructs. LEB and PE predicted a high percentage of the variance in WE, while LEB, PE, and WE predicted 28% of the variance in IL. PE indirectly influenced the relationship between LEB and WE, while WE had an indirect effect on the relationship between LEB and IL. The results indicate that school principals that empower educators can play a significant role in educators’ wellness and their willingness to stay in the profession

Keywords

• Leader empowerment behaviour, psychological empowerment, work engagement, educators, intention to leave

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