The Hierarchical Linear Relationship between Individual and Organizational Variables and Burnout of Teachers in Specialized Vocational High Schools

The purpose of the study was to analyze the burnout and the hierarchical relationship between the individual and organizational variables with burnout of teachers in specialized vocational high schools. The sample population for this study includes all teachers who teach subjects at specialized vocational high schools. The samples were sampled using proportional sampling by the location and affiliation of schools, and these amounts to a sample of 40 schools and 480 teachers. The research questionnaire consisted of the burnout, individual variables(active motivation for Choosing the Teaching Profession, teacher efficacy, workload, role conflict, job stress, resilience, job satisfaction) and organizational variables(principals' emotional leadership, friendly organizational culture, social support) which validity and reliability have been verified. Moreover, the questionnaire also includes survey items on gender, career experience and more. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 23.0 for descriptive statistics and correlation analysis; and HLM 6.08 was used for multi-level analysis of 2 level hierarchical linear modelling. The results of the study were summarized as follows. First, the burnout of teachers are lower than average(2.54), about 60% of teachers experienced emotional exhaustion and about 30~40% of teachers experienced reduced personal accomplishment, depersonalization. Second, a significant between-group variance in the burnout was found, whereby about 11.5% of the variance of the burnout is found between different schools while the remainder 88.5% is attributed to individual variables. Third, in the random coefficient regression model, workload, role conflict, job stress, resilience had a significant positive effect on the burnout while the career experience, active motivation for choosing the teaching profession, teacher efficacy, job satisfaction did not. Fourth, in the regression with means-as-outcomes, employment rate, specialized projects, types of foundation, social supports had a significant positive effect on the burnout, while school size, principals' emotional leadership, friendly organizational culture did not. Fifth, the analysis of the interaction effect revealed that employment rate had a significant interaction effect on the relationship between the burnout and role conflict; the relationship between the burnout and workload. In addition, social supports had a significant interaction effect on the relationship between the burnout and job stress. Recommendations from the results are as follows: first, it is necessary to draw up measures which could lower the burnout of teachers who experienced emotional exhaustion, experience depersonalization or reduced personal accomplishment. Second, it is necessary to consider the burnout of teachers in specialized vocational high schools when the government plan to make or change operating specialized projects. Third, it is necessary to note the contextual relationships between the variables affect to burnout of teachers in specialized vocational high schools differently.