The Impact of Work Relationships and Certain Job Factors on the Work Engagement and other Positive Work Outcomes of Primary School Educators in Namibia

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate whether certain job factors (work relationships, rewards/recognition, organisational support) can enhance positive job outcomes (work engagement, organisational commitment, lower turnover intention) whilst all of these factors can be regarded as job resources that can help educators cope with stressors. A convenience sample (N = 826) of primary school educators of 14 educational regions in Namibia was utilized in this study. The Antecedents Scale, Work Engagement Scale, Rewards/Recognition Scale, Affective Commitment Scale, Turnover Intention Scale and Survey of Perceived Organisational Support were administered. The results confirmed that positive co-worker and supervisor relationships, appropriate rewarding and recognition of educators and strong organisational support will enhance educator work engagement and organisational commitment and whilst seeing for lower turnover intention. Good co-worker relations contribute the most to engagement levels of educators. Co-worker relations, supervisor relations and organisational support contribute significantly to educators’ organisational commitment. Furthermore, good supervisor relations and organisational support were found to be crucial to prevent educators from resigning. Finally, work engagement has a partial mediating effect between job factors (work relationships, organisational support, rewards/recognition), on the one hand, and organisational commitment, on the other hand. However, work engagement does not have a mediating effect between job factors and turnover intention.