TARC INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LEARNING & TEACHING 2016 (TIC 2016) TAR UC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Cynicism Toward Educational Change on Job Satisfaction of Teachers in an Educational District - Once Bitten, Twice Shy? Joanne Sau-Ching Yim* 1, Priscilla Moses2, Siew Chee Choy 3 1
Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, MALAYSIA. (
[email protected]) 2 Universiti Tunku Abul Rahman, MALAYSIA. (
[email protected]) 3 Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, MALAYSIA. (
[email protected])
ABSTRACT This study investigates teachers‟ cynicism toward educational change and their job satisfaction on the implementation of the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, a major education transformation effort in Malaysia. Data were collected from 628 practicing teachers, selected through cluster sampling from an education district in Malaysia. Two well established instruments were used, the Job In General (JIG) scale to measure satisfaction, and the Cynicism About Organisational Change (CAOC) scale to measure pessimism about change being successful and attribution of likely failure of change on people responsible for change. The prevalence of teachers‟ cynicism toward the blueprint is examined with descriptive analysis, and hierarchical regression is used to determine the relationships and contribution of cynicism toward teachers‟ satisfaction. Findings are discussed with implications that may contribute toward successful educational change.
Keywords: Cynicism Toward Change, Job Satisfaction, Educational Change, Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025
Introduction: The Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 (MEB 2013-2025) is currently the signatory education reformation package offered by the government. It is described as the biggest manifestation of government transformation so as to get the best returns in human capital to drive all national development aspirations. The blueprint outlines comprehensive transformation programs with 11 improvement thrusts to enhance outcomes of education (Ministry of Education [MOE], 2013). One of the thrusts is to specifically “transform teaching into the profession of choice” (MOE, 2013, p. E-14), to attract top academic achievers to propel the system to be one of the top third countries in terms of student performance (MOE, 2013). As the country heads toward a developed nation in 2020, this blueprint could well be the final thrust toward the realization of this vision. However, it has been observed that not
all reforms have been successful. Some of the less successful ones have been left aside while other newer initiatives are introduced (Malakolunthu, 2010). Some of the reforms have not achieved the impact it purported to produce, with u-turns carried out in the form of major policy changes (Hallinger, 2010; Malakolunthu, 2010). For example, the medium of instruction for Science and Mathematics initially in Malay was changed to English, and then back to Malay again due to the deterioration of student performance for both subjects (Rokiah et al., 2012). Efforts toward implementing ICT in education also did not manifest clear success. Despite investment of about RM 6 billion over the past decade, ICT usage in schools still fall short with reports that computer use in the classroom has not gone beyond word-processing as an instructional tool (MOE, 2013). Not all changes are ideal and past
changes that were not successful can leave teachers extremely wary about accepting further attempts of change, predisposing cynicism toward future changes (Greenberg & Baron, 2000; Wanous, Reichers, & Austin, 2000). Qian and Daniels (2008) suggest that cynicism toward change is a passive barrier to organisational change. Investigations into this construct is important especially in Malaysia where cultural norms of high power distance and collective attributes result in stakeholders‟ inclination to accept educational change without resistance in order to preserve group harmony (Hallinger, 2010). This tendency to avoid public dissent may result in suppressed disagreement and delay change adaptation (Hallinger, 2010). Reichers, Wanous, and Austin (1997) suggest employees do not simply decide to be cynical, as their cynicism is developed through experience, and persists due to mixed record of successful and unsuccessful change, and influence by other people who have similar cynical views. Such context of change have led scholars to conceptualise cynicism about organisational change to be a learned response, rather than a personality trait (Johnson & O'Leary-Kelly, 2003; Wanous et al., 2000). The current study adopts the Cynicism About Organisational Change (CAOC) scale which consisted of two components: Pessimistic viewpoint about change being successful and Blaming people responsible for change for likely failure of change (Wanous et al., 2000). This scale was developed with reference to Attribution Theory which postulates that people are inclined to impute two types of factors to an observed outcome: Situational factors and (or) dispositional factors (Heider, 1958). Situational factors are aspects beyond the control of a person which may affect change such as unexpected departmental budgetary cut, while dispositional factors are within-person factors such as competency and ability of managers that determine change success. Konakli (2016) illustrated the contribution of dispositional factors to cynicism when it was found that dispositional traits of school management inversely influence teachers‟ cynicism. The more sensitive and sincere on the part of school management, the less cynical teachers may become. Based on the theoretical foundations of Attribution Theory, the two components of the CAOC scale were labelled as Pessimism which is caused by situational attribution, and Cynicism Toward Management
which is caused by dispositional attribution (Kath, 2005). This study adapts these two components of CAOC, and investigates their effect on teachers‟ job satisfaction. Researchers in educational change noted that the global patterns of educational reform overload and teachers‟ work intensification has affected their job satisfaction (Fullan, 2007). Although teachers‟ job satisfaction is a widely investigated construct, it deserves update whenever new changes are introduced, lest these changes result in “self-deceiving public exercise of education reform and a waste of energy and resources” (Nurul-Awanis et al., 2011, p. 110). The inclusion of cynicism in investigating job satisfaction is supported by studies that found negative correlations between organisational cynicism and job satisfaction (Arabaci, 2010; Volpe, Mohammed, Hopkins, Shapiro, & Dellasega, 2014)), while meta-analyses have noted an effect size of .58 true score correlation (Chiaburu, Peng, Oh, Banks, & Lomeli, 2013). Other researchers have suggested that organisational cynicism has resulted in decrease of job satisfaction level in the last decade (Nafei, 2013). Hence an investigation into teachers‟ cynicism toward change would be timely now as there are no known studies which gauge this opinion toward the MEB 2013-2025, at least in the education district investigated. Statement of the Problem: This study aims to investigate the effect of teachers‟ cynicism toward educational change on their job satisfaction. While studies have improved our understanding of teachers‟ satisfaction, there is a paucity of studies about their cynicism toward educational reformation. Prolonged and widespread cynicism could potentially become a precursor to more aggressive expression of dissent such as resistance to change (Qian & Daniels, 2008). Hence it is important to examine teachers‟ opinion during educational change as they are the very people who are tasked to implement changes. It must be noted that a majority of studies done on cynicism have focused on organisations in Western countries (Mohd Noor, Mohd Walid, Ahmad, & Darus, 2013), hence the findings from this study will contribute to bridging this literature gap in Southeast Asian countries. Objectives of the Study: Three research questions (RQ) underpin the current study: RQ1: What is the level of cynicism among teachers toward the MEB 2013-2025?
RQ2: Is there any relationship between teachers‟ cynicism toward the MEB 2013–2025 and their job satisfaction? RQ3: What is the relative contribution of Pessimism and Cynicism Toward Management as predictors of teacher job satisfaction?
Research Method: A cross sectional design was used in this study. Permission to adopt and adapt the questionnaire was sought and granted by the scales‟ authors. Permission to collect data was also sought and granted by the relevant authorities in the Ministry of Education at the federal, state, district, and school level. The respondents were selected through cluster sampling from an educational district in Malaysia, and were informed they could withdraw from the study at any time, and their identity will be kept in confidence. The respondents consisted of 628 practicing teachers from 26 schools. There are 483 (76.9%) females and 145 (23.1%) males. In terms of highest qualifications attained, 37 (5.9%) possess a post graduate qualification, 383 (61.0%) have a bachelor degree, and 208 (33.1%) have a diploma. The sample had a mean age of 39 years (SD = 1.03) with an average weekly workload of 36 hours (SD =1.54), and a mean teaching experience of 14 years (SD = 1.77). The instrument consisted of three sections: (1) Respondents‟ demographic profile, (2) CAOC scale (Wanous et al., 2000), and (3) JIG scale (Brodke, et al., 2009). Permission to use the scales was sought and obtained. The CAOC consisted of eight negative worded items which measures Pessimism (four items) and Cynicism Toward Management (four items) with a fivepoint Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree). Higher mean score indicates higher cynicism (Wanous et al., 2000). The JIG consisted of 18 items, and the original scoring format offered a three-point option to indicate the extent respondents agree with the scale items. Results /Discussions: The Cronbach‟s coefficient alpha obtained for CAOC and JIG were 0.92 and 0.89 respectively. The first RQ sought to descriptively examine the prevalence of change cynicism toward MEB 2013-2025 in an educational district. The second RQ tested the relationship between change cynicism and job satisfaction, and RQ3 investigated the relative contribution of CAOC components in predicting job satisfaction.
In answering RQ1, teachers reported to be moderately cynical toward the MEB 2013-2025 with CAOC scoring a mean of 3.23 (SD = .85). This confirmed that cynicism is a norm in organisations as suggested by Nafei (2013). For RQ2, Pearson correlation indicated a significant inverse relationship between cynicism toward MEB 2013-2025 and job satisfaction (r = -.35, p < .05). Results concurred with research that suggested the potential relationship of cynicism about organisational change and job satisfaction (Arabaci, 2010; Chiaburu et al., 2013; Yim & Moses, 2016). In addressing RQ3, hierarchical regression analysis was used and some possible confounding variables such as gender, age, tenure and workload were controlled because respondents were working in the same education district and performing similar duties, but varied in these demographic factors. As shown in Table 1, the demographic control variables were entered into Step 1, F(4, 623) = 2.07, and failed to account for significant amount of variance in job satisfaction. To enable an appraisal of each component‟s individual effects, the Pessimism component was first entered in Step 2, because literature had shown it to be more meaningful in explaining job satisfaction (Polat & Gungor, 2014). Pessimism explained 24.3% of the total variance in job satisfaction with an additional 22.9% of variance explained after controlling for demographic factors, R2 change = .229, F(5, 622) = 16.30, p < .001. Cynicism Toward Management was entered in Step 3, with the model as a whole accounted for 32.1% of the variance in job satisfaction. This component explained an additional 7.2% variance in job satisfaction, R2 change = .072, F(6, 621) = 15.70, p < .001. The changes in R2 for both components were significant, indicating that they account for a significant proportion of the variance of job satisfaction. Pessimism was found to explain the larger variance in job satisfaction, affirming earlier literature that this component has higher influence than Cynicism Toward Management on job satisfaction (Polat & Gungor, 2014).
Table 1 Relative Contribution of Pessimism and Cynicism Toward Management as Predictors of Job Satisfaction Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
β
SE
β
SE
β
SE
Gender
-.04
.06
-.04
.05
-.03
.05
Age
-.06
.05
-.11
.05
-.12
.04
.12
.03
.13
.05
.12
.03
-.09* .02
-.10
.01
-.09
.01
Independent Variables Constant
Tenure Workload Pessimism
-.48** .03 -.45** .03
CAOC - Mgt
-.28** .02 R2 = .01
R2 = .243** R2 = .321** ∆R2 = .229**
∆R2 = .072**
n = 628, *p
