Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Background & Objectives: Researchers widely believe that teaching is highly stressful. Besides, teachers are more prone to encounter mental health problems than other occupations. Low salaries and benefits, high workload, long working hours, and the lack of managerial support are stressors that challenge teachers. Accordingly, most teachers experience burnout and decreased motivation and efficiency in their jobs. Job burnout includes emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal inadequacy; thus, it is a psychological condition. Success and achieving organizational goals are directly related to managers' ability to motivate and empower individuals. The multi–axis model considers job selection a process of dynamic growth and development, i.e., formed within individuals’ lifestyles. It is influenced by their self–concept, general needs, and efficiency in decision–making. Thus, this research aimed to study the effects of job empowerment based on the Shafiabadi multi–axis model on job burnout in teachers.
Methods: This was a quasi–experimental study with pretest–posttest, follow–up, and a control group design. The study’s statistical population included all teachers working in District 2 of Tehran City, Iran, in 2019. To select the study sample, 30 teachers were selected by non–random and convenience sampling method and divided into the experimental and control groups by homogenization and randomization (n=15/group). The inclusion criteria of the study included obtaining an average score higher than the average of 13 for the emotional fatigue subscale, 26 for the lack of individual success, and 7 for depersonalization in the Burnout Questionnaire (Maslach & Jackson, 1981), the age of 30–45 years, no certain physical diseases, and not receiving medication, and psychotherapy for the past year. The research instrument was the Job Burnout Questionnaire (Maslach & Jackson, 1981). The training was performed in the experimental group in eight 90–minute weekly sessions based on Shafiabadi's multi–axis model (2019). Furthermore, descriptive statistics (mean & standard deviation) and inferential statistics, including repeated–measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni post hoc test, were used in SPSS at the significance level of 0.05 to analyze the obtained data.
Results: The collected results indicated that job empowerment training in the components of emotional fatigue for intragroup factor (p<0.001) and intergroup (p<0.001), depersonalization for intragroup factor (p<0.001), and intergroup factor (p=0.20), the lack of individual success for intragroup factor (p<0.001) and intergroup factor (p=0.020) and the overall score of job burnout for intragroup factor (p<0.001) and intergroup factor (p=0.015) were significant. Moreover, the achieved results outlined a significant difference between the mean pretest–posttest scores and follow–up values concerning emotional fatigue (p<0.001, p<0.001, respectively), depersonalization (p<0.001, p<0.001, respectively), the lack of individual successes (p<0.001, p=0.040, respectively), and the total score of job burnout (p<0.001, p<0.001, respectively). Difference between the mean scores of the posttest and follow–up stages respecting emotional fatigue (p=0.720), depersonalization (p=0.190), lack of individual success (p=0.070), and the total score of job burnout (p=0.059) was not significant; the stability revealed the effect of the intervention for job burnout and its subscales.
Conclusion: Based on the present research findings, Shafiabadi's multi–axis model reduced teacher job burnout due to the nature of the training provided based on the basic concepts of its theory, including self–concept, dynamism, decision–making, purposefulness, and needs.