International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Growth Evaluation www.allmultidisciplinaryjournal.

com

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Growth Evaluation

ISSN: 2582-7138
Received: 15-06-2021; Accepted: 03-07-2021
www.allmultidisciplinaryjournal.com
Volume 2; Issue 4; July-August 2021; Page No. 435-439

The relationship between burnout and job performance among the vernacular school teachers in
Perak
Sarah Shaharruddin 1, Dhanapriya D/O Radha Krishnan 2
1-2
School of Business Management, Universiti Utara Malaysia,Sintok, Kedah, Malaysia
Corresponding Author: Sarah Shaharruddin

Abstract
Teaching is a wonderful yet challenging job. Due to lengthy influence of burnout on the job performances among teachers
hours of teaching and preparation, teachers are prone to in Vernacular national-type Tamil schools in Malaysia. The
burnout. The goal of this research is to examine whether there finding of the study indicates that burnout is negatively
is a link between teachers’ job burnout, and job performance. related with job performance where a high level of burnout
For the aim of this study, 105 teachers from the Vernacular may decrease the level of job performance. Finally, the
national-type Tamil schools in the state of Perak, Malaysia consequences of this research towards the theoretical and
were selected as sample. To achieve this objective, the data practical contributions are discussed and suggestions for
was collected by means of a questionnaire that examined the future research are brought forward.

Keywords: job performance, burnout, teachers, vernacular schools

1. Introduction
In the current state of the world, individual's performance at work is critical for both employers and employees concerning the
quality of education. Nothing is more alarming than the most recent Covid-19 pandemic challenges, which are causing
widespread concern and affecting ordinary people's everyday lives, including the school teachers, where teachers' life have been
severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic ( Zadok-Gurman, Jakobovich, Dvash, Zafrani, Rolnik, Ganz, & Lev-Ari, 2021)
[28]
.
In our increasingly interconnected society, teachers play a crucial role as advocators to lead and collaborate well with others
especially with students. However, teachers, as well as other public care workers, are vulnerable to burnout (Iancu, Rusu,
Ma ̆roiu, Pa ̆curar, & Maricuțoiu, 2018), which is linked to several other bad experiences and consequences. Increased
aggravation and signs of mental illness are examples of changes in mood and wellbeing (Capone, Joshanloo, & Park, 2019;
Hakanen, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2006). This indicates job burnout affects the job performance of the teachers in many angles.
Teaching in difficult situations also may lead to depression, an unstable work-life balance, and poor behaviour control. Teachers
have to adapt to all the challenges and they must face it in order to provide a good teaching environment for students as well as
managing life and family. The excessive workload and some task challenges will all have an impact on a teacher's overall
performance. Despite all the stress, teachers still must learn to manage their stress or problems and overcome it.
In the context of Malaysian education system's current success and challenges, the emphasis on enhancing accessibility to
education, raising expectations (quality), narrowing achievement disparities (equity), promoting student solidarity, and
increasing system effectiveness, are some of the local education objectives, (Ministry Of Education blueprint, 2013-2015).
However, the disparity in primary school examination scores between Nation-wide and National-type vernacular schools is
thinning. The National schools, also known as Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK), and Vernacular National-type Chinese schools, also
known as Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC), have a slight distinction.
In addition, according to Malaysia Kini (2016) [11], there are around 1,000 Tamils school education. Currently, the number is
coarsely half of what it was and vernacular schools in the country are facing many challenges (MalaysiaKini, 2020) [10] the
weakening of Tamil school education institutes were caused by a number of factors. To begin with, the commercialization and
urbanisation that has resulted in the sale of estate lands that houses these schools for their workers has resulted in the closure of
many Tamil schools across the country. Moreover, in the last five years, the distance between Vernacular national-type Tamil
schools, or Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil (SJKT), and their peers has more than halved. However, the number of teachers in
the Malaysia continues to grow, but on the contrary, educational output has been deteriorating mainly in SJKT schools, shown
by table below.

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Table 1: Number of Classes exhaustion and weakness. As a result of low or unnecessary

National Type (Tamil) -Vernacular School Year
energy intake, burnout induces disability, fatigue, and
4,498 2016 exhaustion. Maslach (1980) used existing definitions to
4,455 2017 describe and clarify burnout, as well as to develop the
4,425 2018 Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) scale.
Source: Quick fact 2018, Educational Data Sector Educational Burnout is the result of long-term occupational discomfort.
Planning and Research Division Stress at work is a term used to describe the internal stress
that people in various organisations feel as a result of their
1.1 Objective of the Study work environment. Workplace depression is one of the most
This study examines the link between the teachers’ burnout pervasive wellness challenges today, placing workers' lives
and job performance of Vernacular national-type Tamil in jeopardy. This stress at work can lead to physical and
schools teachers in the state of Perak, Malaysia. The specific mental fatigue, irritability, excitability, anxiety, low self-
objective of the study is to: confidence and increased blood pressure, and it can also
1. Determine the relationship between teachers’ job endanger health generally (Shirin Yazdanpoor, 2016).
burnout and their job performance. Continued strains lead to workplace burnout, which can be
fatal. It may even make people feel exhausted and compelled
2. Literature Review to keep their jobs which could bring negative impact to the
2.1 Job performance employee’s performance (Incirli, 2021) [29].
Job performance refers to an employee’s ability to do specific After reviewing the overall literature, it can be summarized
duty (Marcus, 2017). Based on this definition, job that most scholars agree that burnout employees are
performance can exist in a scale. For example, when characterized by high levels of exhaustion and negative
employee cannot perform a given task, the performance is attitude toward their work (Maslach, Schaufeli & Leiter,
poor or unacceptable. In contrast, able to complete a task 2001). School teachers spend a lot of time with their work
correctly is stated as an excellent performance. In another even after the school hours. The plans for preventing the job
perspective, job performance is described as activities that burnout are either themselves or organisational in nature.
employees expected to perform in a certain range (Saxena, This is to ensure that their job performance is at a good level.
Therefore, this study aims at presenting a finding for the
2019). This implies, job performance is the action shown by
relationship between burnout and job performance among
an employee for a given instruction. This definition connects
teachers. For this purpose, the following hypotheses were put
with the earlier definition in terms of the range. Even though forward:
employees can execute the expected activity, the quality of H1: There is a negative relationship between teachers’
the activity is still looked into before can determine the burnout and their job performance.
performance is good or poor. Job performance is also defined
as the act of reaching a goal set prior to the task and agreed
by the manager and the respective employee (Ones,
Anderson, & Viswesvaran, 2015). Therefore the type of the
job will determine performance measure in which employee
is obliged to show the performance agreed prior to the task. 3. Methodology
This section will discuss the sample of the study, scales of the
2.3 Burnout variables and the process of analysing the obtained data.
Burnout is a condition characterised by emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization, and a deterioration in personal 3.1 The Sample Population
accomplishment that can affect people who work in any Due to the limitation during the Covid-19 Lockdown (The
situation (Maslach & Jackson, 1983). Individuals are not the Movement Control Order), the data was collected by using
cause of burnout; rather, the social environment in which they Google Form online questionnaire distribution through
work is. People's interactions with one another and how they Whatsapp and email. The teachers of the Vernacular national-
perform their professions are shaped by their workplaces. type Tamil schools in Malaysia, or Sekolah Jenis
There will be a greater risk of burnout if the workplace does Kebangsaan Tamil (SJKT), from the state of Perak have been
not recognise the human side of work and there are chosen as the respondents from the total population. Table 2
substantial mismatches between the nature of the job and the below shows the number of 141 teachers from 8 schools that
behavior of people (Maslach, & Leiter, 2016) [7]. were selected in this study. About 105 respondents were
Burnout is a syndrome of exhaustion, cynicism and reduced selected using non-probability sampling in this analysis.
professional efficiency closely linked to the work Aside from that, snowball sampling is used to collect
environment. Once established, the syndrome persists. information from hard-to-reach target audiences.
Burnout occurs as a reaction to stressors in the work
environment. It has various negative effects on work Table 2: Numbers of Sample Selection
performance and personal well-being. Burnout contrasts with School Name Number of Teachers
positive experiences of engagement at work, and therefore SJKT Ladang Sussex 15
interventions to mitigate or reduce burnout can also be SJKT Ladang Chemor 13
formulated to promote engagement (Michael P. Leiter & SJKT Gunong Rapat 12
Christina Maslach, 2015). SJKT Gandhi Memorial 13
Freudenberg coined the term "burnout" in 1974 after seeing SJKT Menglembu 20
signs of exhaustion in his workers. He found that the cause of SJKT Tanjong Rambutan 33
this phenomenon is his own physical and emotional fatigue. SJKT ST Philomena Convent 24
Exhausted people are those that have been destroyed by SJKT Ladang Matang 11

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Table 3: Source of Research Items Table 6 above shows that there is a significant negative
Variable Number of Item Source relationship between job burnout and job performance (b= -
Job Burnout 5 MBI, Maslach and Jackson 1996 [5] 0.498, p < 0.001; Sig 0.000 p < 0.05). Therefore, Job
Job Performance 5 Koopmans 2015 Performance will decrease when the level of Burnout is high.

3.2 Measurement of the instruments: 5. Discussion

Based on Table 3 below, 5 items from MBI (Maslach Burnout The outcome of this study shows that burnout was found
Inventory) developed by Maslach and Jackson (1996) [5] on a negatively significant with job performance, this indicates
five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 “strongly disagree” to that a high level of burnout could decrease the job
5 “strongly agree” was used in this research. Meanwhile, 5 performance level among teachers. Therefore, the hypothesis
items from Koopman (2015) was adopted as the instrument is accepted. In addition, this finding is consistence with the
by ranging the scale from 1 “strongly disagree” to 5 “strongly other studies in the literatures (Incirli, 2021; Iancu et al,
agree”. 2018) [29]. As been understood, teachers’ overall performance
While in Table 4 below show the statement for each item for is crucial for the enhancement of the students, the
each of the variable in this study. development of the institution and the advancement of
society nation. There is a growing understanding that highly
Table 4: Research Items qualified, skilled, and competent teachers are critical in
helping the students improve their academic performance
Job Burnout
(Thakre et al., 2017). According to Morgan and Craith
1. I enjoy my work. I have no symptoms of burnout.
2. Occasionally I'm under stress and I don't always have as (2015), the vast majority of teachers believe teaching has
much energy as I once did, but I don't feel burned out. gotten more stressful. Individual diversity and an overloaded
3. I am definitely burning out and have one or more symptoms curriculum, as well as the number of students with
of burnout, such as physical and emotional exhaustion. behavioural issues, are major sources of stress and burnout.
4. The symptoms of burnout that I'm experiencing won’t go When a teacher's workload is increased, they are more likely
away. I think about frustration at work a lot. to experience the burnout. There are times when a teacher's
5. I feel completely burned out and often wonder if I can go on. excessive burden confers honour and distinction on him or
I am at the point where I may need some changes or may need her. Increased workload, on the other hand, has been linked
to seek some sort of help. to burnout which could affect the job performance level.
Workload mismatches enhance weariness, according to a
Job Performance study conducted in Poland, and increased workload has a
1. I managed to plan my work so that i finished it on time. continuous link with burnout. As a result, a heavy workload
2. I kept in mind the work result i need to achieve.
may be the most sensitive component in distinguishing
3. I am able to set priorities.
burnout from inefficacy (Mojsa-Kaja et al., 2015) [8].
4. I was able to carry out my work efficiently.
5. I managed my time well.
Therefore, teachers should require a reasonable degree of
workload in the profession. They are more likely to work if
their schoolwork is not too demanding. When they ingest too
4. Findings
much, it affects their work performance.
This section presenting the results based on the data analysis
such a correlation (Table 5) and regression analysis (Table 6).
6. Limitations and Direction for the Future Research
Table 5: Pearson Correlation Analysis There are few limitations in this study that should be
acknowledged while interpreting the findings of the research.
JB JP First, the research was carried out during the Covid-19
Job Burnout (JB) Pearson Correlation 1 ockdown (Movement of Control Order) where the interstate
Sig. (2-tailed) travel is prohibited. There were some limitation in terms of
the data collection where the researchers cannot meet the
Job Performance (JP) Pearson Correlation -0.708** 1 respondents face to face to distribute the questionnaire.
Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 However, the alternative plan has been carried out by
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). distributing the questionnaire online.
The Pearson correlation study between work burnout and job Second, is the concern about the research approach where
performance is seen in table above. According to correlation quantitative research is generally has limitation in knowing
study, the maximum reading for job burnout is (r = 0.708, p about “how” and why regarding the antecedents and the
0.01), suggesting that there is a negative correlation between consequences of the relationship among the variables
job burnout and job performance. Nevertheless, it still may not jeopardizing the whole finding
of the study where quantitative could be used in generalizing
Table 6: Results of Regression Analysis the large sample size analysis result.
Variable Standard Coefficients Beta P Value (Sig) It is recommended for the next future research to expand the
Burnout -0.498 0.000 study on the larger population, particularly in more states of
R2 0.924 Malaysia. In terms of the research framework, the future
Adj R2 0.922 researchers can consider to focus on other moderating factors
F 410.629 that may weaken or strengthen the relationship between
Sig. 0.000 burnout and job performance. Aside from that, the future

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