The Impact of Job Satisfaction on Teachers’ Performance in the UAE

Abstract

Job satisfaction greatly affects job performance. This is of a prodigious value in education as the teachers’ performance impacts the quality of education and thus the Human Development Index (HDI) of the nation.

Purpose: to investigate the effect of job satisfaction on the performance of teachers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) utilizing a scale that was used in business management previously.

Methodology: The research used a quantitative empirical method, whereby the impact of the independent variable (teachers’ satisfaction) was measured on the dependent variable (teachers’ performance). The data used was primary data collected via a survey distributed to a convenient sample. Respondents included 112 teachers working in UAE. SPSS application was used for data analysis. Reliability, factor analysis and construct validity were tested, and shown adequate sample and reliable tool. Regression model was applied, in order to test the two developed hypotheses.

Findings: revealed that job satisfaction is associated with job performance among teachers.

Implications: Results may help decision makers to enhance the teachers’ satisfaction in order to improve teachers’ performance.

1 Introduction

Education is one of the three vital dimensions of the Human Development Index (Roser 2014). Therefore, the UAE Governmental expenditure on education per student exceeds 10% of the GDP per capita (Human Development Reports 2022). Additionally, teacher’s performance is indispensable to the education process and impacts not only the students but the community at large. Therefore, it is crucial to explore factors that enhance teachers’ performance. Research has shown that job satisfaction can affect employees’ performance significantly (Sabuhari et al. 2020).

In the UAE, there were more than 70,000 teachers working at public and private schools teaching the multicultural population of students. (MOE Statistics 2018).

Less satisfaction of teachers in UAE may be due to leadership of principals, lack of participation in curriculum decisions, and lack of respect in society (Ibrahim & Al-Taneiji 2019). The teachers’ motivational factors included teaching enjoyment, professional development, and rewarding feelings when working with students. While the maintenance factors included job insecurity, motionless salaries, and excessive teaching loads. Results emphasized wages, job security and reasonable workload, are all vital factors for increasing teachers’ satisfaction. On the other hand, (Gudep 2019) highlighted the importance of work life balance on the job satisfaction of the teaching staff in the UAE.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of job satisfaction on the performance of teachers in UAE utilizing a scale that was used in business management previously. The research used a quantitative empirical method.

2 Background and Rationale

Despite of the large number of teachers in the UAE, teachers’ satisfaction and performance have not been studied profoundly. Dissimilar to the attention given to this topic worldwide, except for few studies that tackled the perceptions of the private school teachers’ (Matsumoto 2019). Additionally, the public-school teachers believed that they were excluded when school decisions are made (Abu Dhabi Education Council 2009). Therefore, it is recommended to enhance the communication and feedback with teachers in order to bridge the gap between reform plans and their application by the primary implementers who are the teachers (Matsumoto 2019).

Results of this study may aid the decision makers to identify the vivacious factors that may enhance teachers’ performance, and its association with the job satisfaction of teachers and thus boost the quality of education.

Research Questions

• 1. Does teachers’ satisfaction impact teachers’ performance in the UAE?

• 2. Is there an impact of demographic factors on the satisfaction and performance of teachers in the UAE?

3 Literature Review and Conceptual Framework

3.1 Teachers’ Job Satisfaction

Bas, Küçük & Kisa (2020) defined job satisfaction as “the expression of the satisfaction or positive emotions of the employee when her/his work or experience are evaluated”. This state enhances the voluntary involvement in work (Ibrahim & Al-Taneiji 2019).

According to Lavy & Bocker (2018) the meaningful relationships between teachers and students may enhance job satisfaction. Thus, the sense of meaning by teachers is associated with positive work outcomes. Likewise, Činčera et al. (2019) reported two focal determinants of job satisfaction among teachers, namely, inquiry-based learning and participating in learning communities.

3.2 Teachers’ Performance

According to Riwukore, Global & Street (2021), the Indonesian underprivileged education was due to the abysmal teachers’ performance. Therefore, teachers’ education, shall consider equipping the candidates with the required capacities, to enhance possessing essential instructional competencies as a prerequisite to independent practice (Waller 2018). Similarly, Barasa (2020) emphasised the value of teacher’s training, being pre-service or in-service qualification. Moreover, Riwukore, Global & Street (2021) affirmed the significant impact of competence and motivation on teachers’ performance. Furthermore, job satisfaction was one of the factors that impact teaching performance, in addition to, resources, management support, remuneration, emotional support, work pressure, and the quality of teacher-student relationships. (Orbe, Espinosa & Datukan 2018).

3.3 Job Satisfaction and Performance

Enormous scholarly attention was given to the association between job satisfaction and job performance. Education research has associated the quality of teaching with the quality of teachers. Additionally, some researchers even claimed that satisfaction of teachers is a predictor of their performance (Wolomasi, Asaloei & Werang 2019), as job satisfaction can significantly contribute to performance improvement. (Eliyana et al. 2019) (Simatupang et al. 2017). Additionally, Činčera et al. (2019) have linked the quality of science teaching with teachers’ satisfaction and self-efficacy. Moreover, Rasto & Maulani (2019) suggested to improve teachers’ motivation and satisfaction in order to improve their performance.

Theoretical Framework

Badri et al. (2013) have utilized the social cognitive model in studying the teachers’ satisfaction in Abu Dhabi. The model entails personality/affective traits, participation in goal-directed activities, self-efficacy expectations, work conditions, and some environmental factors. Accordingly, teachers are satisfied if they have the competence and self-efficacy, positive work conditions, support, in addition to their own qualities. Similarly, Granziera & Perera (2019) have examined a social cognitive model, via relating the self-efficacy of teachers with engagement, work engagement and job satisfaction.

Hypotheses

This study aimed to test the association between the job satisfaction and the self-reported teachers’ job performance, additionally, it will test the impact of the demographic and career variables on both job satisfaction and job performance. Consequently, this paper hypothesizes the following:

• H₀ 1: Job satisfaction has no positive impact on self-reported job performance among teachers in the UAE.

• H_a 1: Job satisfaction has a positive impact on self-reported job performance among teachers in the UAE.

• H₀ 2: Demographic factors are not significantly linked to both job satisfaction and self-reported job performance among teachers in the UAE.

• Ha 2: Demographic factors are significantly linked to both job satisfaction and self-reported job performance among teachers in the UAE.

The conceptual model was based on Sulaiman’s Model (2007) on satisfaction and performance.

4 Research Methodology

Quantitative research approach was utilized, in order to describe current conditions, investigate relationships, and study cause-effect phenomena. Quantitative primary data was obtained from the respondents. The independent variable for this study is the job satisfaction. The dependent variable is the teacher’s performance. The questionnaire was transformed into an online survey utilizing google forms. The study was conducted between April and June 2022.

Sample

The population in this study composed of the teachers working in the UAE. Blind random selection was not possible based on identifiers, as the researchers had no access to such records, thus convenient sampling was adopted. The questionnaire link including the purpose and the consent were shared online with the various WhatsApp groups of teachers’ that the researchers have access to. 112 respondents answered the survey completely, with a response rate of 22.4%.

Questionnaire

The Questionnaire, was adopted from (Suliman 2007), permission was granted from the Author. Therefore, face and content validity were ensured as the questionnaire was a reliable scale. It contains a cover letter providing information about the study and assuring anonymity of respondents, and an informed consent.

The questionnaire consisted of general demographics, followed by questions on satisfaction and performance of teachers in the UAE to determine the effect of each independent variable on the dependent variable, either simultaneously or partially.

Variables pertinent to demographic and career data were measured utilizing 2–6 points scales. While job satisfaction (multifactorial) was measured via a scale of 20 items, representing the following factors: payment, promotion, relationship with the supervisor, relationship with the co-workers, and the job itself. Work performance (multifactorial) was measured using 14 items representing rating of work skills, understanding work duties, quality, quantity, and innovation. The 5 points Likert scale was used to measure both satisfaction and performance.

5 Results

SPSS software (version 28.0) was utilized for data analysis. The various statistical tests needed to answer the questions elicited in this research included, construct validity (factor analysis), reliability test (Cronbach Alpha) and linear regression.

5.1 Descriptive Statistics

Demographics frequency statistics have elicited that the majority of respondents 94.6% were females, 77.7% married, 41.1%, having a university degree, and 31% had a master’s degree. More than half of the sample aged 36–46 years. 75% were non-UAE nationals and working at mid-level management 68%. Furthermore, the majority 85% had 19 years or less of job tenure (Table 1).

Table 1. The description of the study sample

Common Method Bias

The common method bias of the questionnaire used in this study was checked, and no single factor was accountable for the majority of variance, which is 50% or more. The test revealed that the first unrotated factor has captured 24.42% of the variance, and there were 7 factors responsible for 66.796% of the variance as shown in Table 2. Accordingly, the instrument used is not biased.

Table 2. Common Bias Factor Test

Reliability Test (Cronbach’s Alpha)

The 5 points Likert scale was used to measure both satisfaction and performance. Items were scored as follows: SA = 5, A = 4, N = 3, D = 2, SD = 1.

There were 7 negatively worded items that were recorded prior to analysis. Additionally, one question was deleted due to a variation between the Arabic and the English versions (question No 20).

Cronbach alpha values for both the global variables and for the sub factors or the dimensions ranged between acceptable and high correlation (0.637 to 0.93), however, the value for the innovation factor was 0.2, therefore, factor 1 of innovation was deleted so the score becomes 0.762. Reliability tests are presented in Table 3.

Table 3. Initial Reliability Tests

Factor Analysis

Exploratory Factor Analysis was utilized to divide variables which are correlated and thus combines items that are highly correlated with each other. To decide on the multidimensionality of both global variables, the factor analysis was done for the job satisfaction 20 items, and then for the 14 job performance items. Factors were identified and classified based on eigenvalues more than 1.

The Total Variance Explained Matrix (Table 4) has shown that in regard to job satisfaction 6 factors could explain 69.708% of the variation. While for job performance 3 factors were identified and were responsible for 70.877% of the variation.

Table 4. Job Satisfaction Total Variance

While for job performance, the Total Variance Explained Matrix (Table 5) has shown that 3 factors were identified and were responsible for 70.877% of the variation.

Table 5. Job Performance Total Variance

The Rotated Component Matrix illustrated in Table 6 shows the factor loading.

Table 6. Job Satisfaction Factor Loading

Factor analysis for job satisfaction revealed the following factors:

Factor 1 (explaining 30.94% of the variations in the data, factor 2: 11.71%, factor 3: 9.17%, factor 4: 6.57%, factor 5: 5.82% and factor 6 explaining 5.41% of variations (Table 7).

Table 7. New Factors Labelling for the Job Satisfaction.

The Rotated Component Matrix, for job performance illustrated in Table 8 shows the factor loading.

Table 8. Job Performance Rotated Component Matrix

Factor analysis for job performance revealed the following three factors as shown in Table 9:

Factor 1: explaining 47.70% of the variance in the data, factor 2: 14.80%, and factor 3: 8.37% of variations.

Table 9 shows a summary of the factors of job performance, item Innovation 1 has not loaded with any factor; therefore, it will be removed.

Table 9. Summary of Job Performance Factors

5.2 Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Test

KMO result was 0.758 in Table 10 indicating that the sample was adequate. Besides, Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity was significant at less than 0.001, thus there is a relationship between the variables under this study.

Table 10. KMO and Bartlett’s Test

Furthermore, a reliability test was conducted again for each one of the new factors. Table 11 represents a summary of the Cronbach’s alpha values:

Table 11. Cronbach’s Alpha Values Summary

The above table revealed that most factors showed high reliability between 0.78–0.92, with the exception of 2 factors. Only Job satisfaction factor number 5 had a Cronbach alpha of. 578, and it should be excluded from the instrument, however, this element targets the payment which is considered crucial as per the literature to measure satisfaction, consequently, it was kept.

5.3 Construct Validity

Convergent and Discriminant validity were tested via Factor analysis concurrently as shown in Tables 12 and 13.

Table 12. Convergent Validity Test Results

Table 13. Discriminant Validity Test Results

Correlation Bivariate

Coefficient of Correlation (r) was computed, results showed that there was a positive correlation .283 between the 2 variables with a significance level of .002. This means that teachers who are highly satisfied tend to rate their job performance high. However, since the correlation is closer to zero than one, there should be other factors that can impact or better predict job performance of the teachers. Accordingly, the coefficient of determination (r2) = 0.080 which illustrates the percentage of the total variation in the dependent variable (Y) that is explained or accounted for by the variation in the independent variable (X) therefore, 8% of the variation is explained by the independent variable change. Consequently, the null hypothesis H0 (the correlation is zero and no linear relationship) was rejected and the hypothesis H₁: β_i ≠ 0. (Tables 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19)

Table 14. Descriptive Statistics

Table 15. Correlations

Regression analysis was done to further study the relationship between the variables via predicting the dependent from the independent.

Table 16 a. Demographics Correlation–New JP.

Table 16 b. Demographics Correlation–New JP.

Table 17 a. Demographics correlation–JS.

Table 17 b. Demographics correlation–JS.

Regression Model 1:

A linear regression model was done.

Dependent Variable Y: New Job Performance (New JP).

Independent variable X: Job Satisfaction (JS).

The assumptions are satisfied and the relationship between the two variables appears to be positively significant <.001, and .002 for the dependent variable and the independent variable respectively, and the ANOVA table shows a p value .002 < 0.05 which rejects the null hypothesis. As for the R² (.080) which is weak because JS explains only 8% of the independent variable, while 92% can be explained by other variables.

Table 18. Model 1 regression results.

Regression Model 2:

Another regression model was applied to test if the demographic variables have effect on the job performance, and the results yield are as follows:

Dependent variable Y: New Job Performance (New JP).

Independent variables: Job Satisfaction + Demographics.

The model seems to be not significant.

The Significance of the Coefficients:

As the model results showed only the coefficients of constant and X1 are significant that is (0.001) and (0.013) respectively, while all the other independent variables are insignificant.

The Goodness of Fit the Model:

The results showed that R2 = 0.130. This means that only 13% of the variation in Y (New JP) could be explained by the variation of the independent variable, while about 87% is explained by other factors. As the R-square is very low the researcher Concludes that this model cannot be used for prediction, but it remains valid at a 90% of confidence level.

Table 19. Model 2 Regression Results

6 Discussion

Teachers’ performance may be affected by various factors including the job satisfaction. Teachers’ job satisfaction, is driven by the sense of meaning, motivation, inquiry-based learning and participating in learning communities. (Simatupang et al. 2017, Činčera et al. 2019), besides the engagement in reflective dialogue, de-privatization of practice, collaborative activity. (Prenger, Poortman & Handelzalts 2019).

The few studies that were conducted in the UAE indicated that teaching enjoyment, professional development, and work life balance enhance satisfaction. While the job insecurity, motionless salaries. Excessive teaching loads, lack of participation in curriculum decisions, lack of respect in society, may hinder the teachers’ satisfaction. (Ibrahim & Al-Taneiji 2019), (Gudep 2019).

The adopted instrument (Sulaiman 2001, 2007) considered the multidimensionality of both variables. However, it may need to be modified in future research to include other dimensions that might be unique to education field, such as the relationship with the students, and the participation in curriculum design.

The instrument was not biased when tested by Harman Single Factor Test. Reliability tests yielded that Cronbach alpha values ranged between (0.637 to 0.93), which implies that the scales used in this study are reliable. The KMO Test of 0.758 indicates that the sample was adequate. Additionally, Both Convergent Validity and Discriminant Validity were guaranteed.

Factors analysis revealed 9 factors based on eigenvalues more than 1. 6 factors explained 69.708% of the variation for job satisfaction. While for job performance 3 factors were responsible for 70.8% of the variation.

The basic regression assumptions of linearity, normality, and homoscedasticity were satisfied. There was a positive correlation .283 between the 2 variables with a significance level of .002. This means that teachers who are highly satisfied tend to rate their job performance high, and thus the null hypothesis was rejected. Two regression models were used to test the relationship between the JS and JP variables, the first model appears to be positively significant, however the R² was weak since on 8% of JS can explain the JP, the second model was used to test the effect of demographics variable on the JP, but the relationship was not significant. The coefficient of determination (r²) showed that 8% of the variation is explained by the independent variable change. Consequently, the null hypothesis H₀: β₁ = β₂ = ^… = β_k = 0 (the correlation is zero and no linear relationship) was rejected and the hypothesis H₁: β_i ≠ 0 (the independent variable affects Y).

7 Conclusion, Recommendations and Limitations

Teachers’ performance is fundamental to the quality of education and the students’ performance. Job satisfaction is one of the most important factors that affect teachers’ performance.

Evidence from this research may shed some light of the importance of job satisfaction of teachers on job performance and consequently on the quality of education. However, there could be other factors that can impact or better predict job performance of the teachers. The study recommends to further investigate this focal construct.

One of the limitations encountered was that literature revealed that teachers ‘satisfaction and performance were both affected by factors that were not considered in the questionnaire used in this study. Besides the limited time allotted for the study and the convenient sampling which may affect generalizability.