Iranian English language teachers' job satisfaction and

Issues in Educational Research, 27(4), 2017 842!

organisational climate in public and private schools

Kioumars Razavipour and Moslem Yousefi

Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran

Organisation issues rarely feature in the English language education literature, since

language education is seemingly mostly concerned with the individual learner or teacher.

As such, the impact that school climate might have on Iranian English language teachers

remains an uncharted territory. This mixed-method study explores the relationship

between organisational climate and EFL teachers’ job satisfaction. A total of 128 male

and female EFL teachers from public and private language institutes responded to two

scales, one assessing school organisational climate and the second assessing teachers’ job

satisfaction. Interviews were also held with 12 participants. Correlations, t-tests, multiple

regression analyses as well as thematic analysis revealed that teachers in both public and

private language institutes were moderately dissatisfied with their jobs and they do not

perceive their institutional climates to be favourable. Moreover, there exists a significant

positive relationship between organisational climate and EFL teachers’ job satisfaction

was found. It was also found that private and public language schools had significantly

different organisational climates. Finally, organisational climate dimensions of principal

leadership and reward system appeared to be significant predictors of EFL teachers' job

satisfaction.

Introduction

It is difficult to over-estimate the crucial role that teachers play in education (Popham,

2009). It follows that the extent to which teachers feel fulfilled and satisfied with the job

they are doing is of utmost importance in the success or otherwise of education in general

and language education in specific. Of the many factors possibly affecting teachers' job

satisfaction, a prominent one is teachers’ workplace environment or what has come to be

known as organisational climate (OC), defined as “the meaning organizational employees

attach to the policies, practices, and procedures they experience and the behaviours they

observe getting rewarded, supported, and expected” (Schneider & Barbera, 2014, p. 10).

The literature in educational management and industrial psychology has it that the climate

of an institution is such a powerful influence that can potentially override other individual

factors which have consumed, and continue to do so, much of the attention and resources

in teacher training, be it in-service or pre-service training. This crucial determinant of job

fulfilment seems to have escaped the attention of scholars working in the field of English

as a foreign language (EFL).

In the field of English language teaching (ELT), the pendulum of interest has traditionally

swung in favour of the individual and away from the collective. As such, individual

language teacher characteristics such as teacher beliefs, teacher pedagogical knowledge,

teacher language awareness, teacher assessment literacy, and teacher cognition have been

the subject of much scholarly debate. Yet, when the focus is taken away from the

individual toward the collective, the pendulum swings to the other end of the cline: global

Razavipour, & Yousefi 843

macro-political issues such as the imperialism of English language (Philipson, 2009;

Canagarajah, 1999), World Englishes (Davies, 2009; Khodadady & Shayesteh, 2016), and

critical applied linguistics (Pennycook, 2001). The pendulum, however, seems to have

never stayed midway to address the social units beyond the individual but smaller than the

global. This study seeks to address the interim stage on the continuum of individual to

global: the institutions where EFL teachers work.

Given that the ELT literature has focused mainly on the individual, the teacher and the

learner in isolation, with little attention to the social units wherein educational processes

take place, results from this study can provide insights into the collective of ELT. In terms

of pedagogy and instruction, approaching language education from a managerial and

organisational perspective could provide language education policy makers,

administrators, principals, teachers and learners with expanded horizons regarding how

social units need to be considered in language pedagogy. Accordingly, this study seeks to

examine the degree to which Iranian EFL teachers' job satisfaction is affected by the

school climate where they work.

This study also aims to identify aspects of organisational climate that explain variation in

Iranian teachers’ satisfaction with their jobs. Finally, we seek to know if the relationship

between Iranian English teachers’ job satisfaction and organisational climate is moderated

by their teaching in private or public schools. The paper concludes with implications of

the findings for language teacher training and language education management in both

public and private language education sectors.

Literature review

Organisational climate refers to an organisation's members' holistic and conscious

perceptions and descriptions of their work environment, which is affected by the

individual characteristics of the organisation, the structure and standards prevailing in the

organisation, and also by the organisation’s culture (Kuenzi & Schminke, 2009; Schneider,

Ehrhart & Macey, 2013). At the outset, a distinction has to be made between the climate

of an organisation and its culture. Though occasionally some scholars consider these

terms to be referring loosely to the same construct, the two terms are in fact different.

Organisational climate is defined as “the meanings people attach to interrelated bundles of

experiences they have at work”, whereas organisational culture is “the basic assumptions

about the world and the values that guide life in organisations”, respectively (Schneider et

al., 2013, p. 361). In simple terms, organisational culture refers to the accumulated history

and traditions within and around that organisation, which together give the organisation

and its members their distinct identity, norms, and values (Schneider & Barbera, 2014;

Schneider et al., 2013). On the other hand, the climate of an organisation deals with the

current atmosphere in an organisation, regardless of its historical and traditional

antecedents (Griffin & Moorhead, 2014). Though it is never possible to detach the

present from the past, and hence the culture from the climate, the distinction has proved

to be a useful heuristic to study educational organisations. Being the outcome of history

844 Iranian English language teachers' job satisfaction and organisational climate in public and private schools

and tradition, the culture of an organisation is not readily amenable to quick, short-term

changes (Griffin & Moorhead, 2014), whereas its climate lends itself more easily to

change. Therefore, managers are able to change the climate of their organisations in the

short term but not the cultures of their organisations.

Past research has provided evidence for the relationship between job satisfaction and the

organisational climate in the financial sector (Basu, 2017), the health sector (Liou &

Cheng, 2010) and in education (Ghavifekr & Pillai, 2016). Hence, it is plausible to think

that issues of climate affect English language teachers job satisfaction also. Gray (2007)

entertained the possibility of a reciprocal relationship between the climate of an

organisation and its members’ job satisfaction. In other words, job satisfaction is one of

the cardinal organisational dimensions, which is of central importance in shaping its

climate. Job satisfaction is defined as “more of an attitude, an internal state. It could for

example, be associated with a personal feeling of achievement, either quantitative or

qualitative” (Mullins, 2010, p. 282). More recently, Griffin (2013) defined job satisfaction

or dissatisfaction as “an attitude that reflects the extent to which an individual is gratified

by or fulfilled in his or her work” (p. 423). Such attitudes of fulfilment, achievement, and

gratification are shaped by the prevailing climate in the workplace. As teachers are the

clients and implementers of educational changes (Popham, 2009; Markee, 1997), the

degree to which they are fulfilled and satisfied impacts other aspects of education,

including management, student learning, learner motivation, and parents' attitudes and

willingness to become involved in educational issues.

When it comes to empirical studies of job satisfaction, there are three main research

approaches, in all of which organisational climate is implicated. These approaches include

the traditional approach, focusing on the physical arrangement of work environment and

the role of monetary compensation; the human relations approach placing emphasis on

employees and their social needs, and the third approach is the human resource approach,

giving priority to job design and life quality (Griffin & Moorhead, 2014). Obviously, the

arrangement of work environment, the monetary concerns, the social needs and job

design and life quality all are affected by and in turn affect the climate of an organisation.

Organisational climate enjoys an extensive literature, a comprehensive review of which

goes beyond the scope of the current work. Thus, in the interest of space, the remainder

of this section is devoted to only two themes in organisational climate literature, that are

of closest relevance to language education. We first review the existing literature on the

climate of educational institutions, and then report on studies investigating the linkages

between the climate of educational institutions, teachers' job satisfaction and performance

in general educational settings. The review ends with a synthesis of related studies in the

ELT literature.

One strand of research regarding the climate of educational institutions has become

known as the field of school climate. What elements or dimensions constitute school

climate has been the subject of numerous theoretical debates and empirical studies. For

some, school climate consists of academic press and communitarian climate, with the

former relating to demands on student achievement and the latter being about teachers'

Razavipour, & Yousefi 845

climate of work (Philips, 1997). Yet others break the construct further into additional

dimensions, including affiliation, innovation, participatory decision making, resource

adequacy, and student support (Johnson & Stevens, 2006, p. 114).

The relationship between measures of organisational climate and job satisfaction among

child care teachers was studied by Pope and Stremmel (1992). Correlational and factor

analyses showed that organisational climate and satisfaction represented operationally

separate but related constructs. Using a factorial analysis design, the relationship between

job satisfaction and organisational climate in elementary schools was investigated by Abu-

Saad and Hendrix (1995). In this study, teachers’ satisfaction with work itself appeared to

be the dominant job satisfaction factor and principal leadership emerged as the dominant

organisational climate factor. Additionally, findings of the multiple regression analysis

showed that the organisational climate factors of principal leadership and autonomy on

the job were significantly related to teachers' satisfaction with their work, and the

interaction between principal leadership and teachers' intimacy was significantly related to

both job satisfaction factors. There is also evidence about the relationship between climate

of organisations and teachers’ job performance (Adeymi, 2006). Similar findings were

reported in Selamat, Samsu, and Kamalu (2013). In particular, they found the trust

dimension to be of special importance in teachers' job performance.

Though the idea of organisation is not frequently invoked in mainstream research in ELT,

it does come to play in the literature that has developed in language program evaluation as

well as in innovation management. The realisation that changes in the content of

educational programs and teaching methods do not in and of themselves guarantee the

success of innovations in education has encouraged educational change managers to

examine the management literature for insights (Alderson, 2009; Markee, 1997). As such,

several scholars have been concerned with how ideas in educational management can

foster change in language programs. Markee (1997) questioned the widely held assumption

that research findings in second language acquisition (SLA) will automatically "trickle

down to practitioners" and policy makers for adoption (p. 80). SLA scholars and language

teachers continue to be worlds apart because findings of the former are distant from

practitioners' immediate concerns and even if at times they are not, they are packaged in a

language so technical that they are rendered inaccessible to teachers (Eykin, 1987, cited in

Markee, 1997). Similar concerns have been voiced with regard to language teachers' failing

to embrace and adopt ideas and insights produced by language testing scholars (Brindley,

2001). Even those who have attempted to bring about educational changes through the

undeniable power of examinations have found that unless broader managerial issues are

taken into account, desired pedagogical changes are hard to implement, no matter how

eloquent and attractive the idea of change might be (Wall & Alderson, 1993; Wall, 1996;

Alderson, 2009). The failure to consider managerial and organisational issues in improving

language education has contributed to an unhealthy division of labour between SLA

scholars and practitioners, causing the efforts of both parties to lack concrete outcomes.

In Markee's words, "SLA THEORY and RESEARCH do little to promote change in

language education because they do not address the real-life concerns of teachers and

policy-makers" (1997, p. 81, emphasis in the original).

846 Iranian English language teachers' job satisfaction and organisational climate in public and private schools

In their quest to understand why most educational innovations fail, scholars turned to the

sociology of change, where a much broader perspective is adopted on how a social change

transpires (Rogers, 1995). Turning to social theories of change implies that for the

betterment of language education the larger social setting in which a change, in this case

more efficient language teaching, takes place has to be taken into account, which means a

departure from the researcher discovers and the practitioner applies paradigm. One social unit of

crucial importance in any social change, including educational changes, is the institution or

organisation in which change designers and implementers find themselves in (Alderson,

2009). In language education, unlike in general education, this has not been adequately

addressed.

Outside language education, the larger educational environments or organisations, which

subsume individuals, have been demonstrated to exert considerable influences on teachers

and their efficiency. An obvious corollary of such findings for language education is that

no matter how well language teachers are trained, the school climate may overpower all

efforts and resources that have gone into teacher education. Conversely, optimal school

climates likely compensate for many individual teacher factors. Since there has been little

theoretical development or empirical research addressing the effects that organisational

climate and job satisfaction as well as their interaction have in language education, the

present study seeks to investigate the extent to which EFL teachers' job satisfaction is a

function of the organisational climate in which they work. In particular, answers to the

following research questions are sought:

1. Is there any relationship between organisational climate and EFL teachers’ job

satisfaction?

2. Which organisational climate dimension or cluster of dimensions predicts Iranian

English teachers' job satisfaction?

3. Are the organisational climates of private language schools and that of state schools

different?

Context of the study

Generally speaking, English language teaching in Iran takes place in either public schools,

regulated by national policies, or private institutes, owned and run by private owners. The

two school environments are different in several ways, including their management

mechanisms, the motives of their managers and students, their physical space, and their

payment systems. In Iran, an expanding circle country, to use Kachru's (2006)

classification, language education is a huge industry. Private language institutes have

mushroomed everywhere to the point that in some remote villages, where basic life

facilities are lacking, language schools have been established. To give an idea of the scale

of English teaching in the country, one central language school in Tehran, Iran Language

Institute (ILI), has over hundreds of branches across the country. In the public sector,

official English language education starts from the first year in junior high school and

continues for the next seven years. Overall, English language education occupies a big

portion of education in the country.

Razavipour, & Yousefi 847

Methods and materials

The data for the current study were collected through questionnaires and semi-structured

interviews. Using a convenience sampling approach, a total of 128 English teachers, 62

males and 66 females, participated in this study. Half of the participants were working in

state schools and the other half in private language schools.

The quantitative data were collected using two modified questionnaires: one for assessing

organisational climate and the other for job satisfaction. For the former, the Organisational

Climate Inventory (OCI) (Abu-Saad and Hendrix, 1995) was adapted. OCI consists of 17

Likert scale items, ranging from strongly agree = 5, to strongly disagree = 1. Items negatively

worded were reversely coded. The OCI captured five dimensions of organisational climate

including principal leadership, reward system, autonomy and decision-making, intimacy and warmth,

and school facilities. For the dependent variable, job satisfaction, we adapted the scale

developed by Sharma (2001), comprising 17 Likert type statements regarding job

satisfaction dimensions: satisfaction with the work (the nature of the work itself), promotion

opportunities, pay and job security, working conditions, co-worker relations, and job flexibility. The item

structure of the job satisfaction questionnaire was similar to that of OCI and a similar

scoring procedure was followed.

The instruments were translated into Persian to make sure differences in participants'

English proficiency did not introduce construct irrelevant variance to the collected data.

To ensure that the original and the translated versions elicited the same data, hence

construct validity, a back translation was carried out and areas of discrepancy were

identified and resolved. The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) of the OCI

and job satisfaction scales was 0.85, and 0.80 respectively. Exploratory factor analysis

(EFA) showed that data loaded well on the intended number of factors.

For the analysis of data, in addition to descriptive statistics, multiple regression analysis,

Pearson correlation, and an independent t-test were applied. For the qualitative data,

interviews were held with 12 participants, six from each group, who agreed to be

interviewed. Interview data were collected in May and June, 2015 and each interview

lasted for about 20 to 25 minutes. The interviewees were met at their own convenience in

their workplaces. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and thematically

analysed. Interviews were conducted and analysed in Persian and illustrative quotations

were translated into English by the authors. To refer to the interviewees from whom we

quote, pseudonyms are used throughout the text. To minimise the subjectivity involved in

identifying the themes, another colleague familiar with the topic was invited to derive the

recurrent themes. The inter-coder reliability of .87, estimated via coefficient of agreement

(Brown, 2005), proved to be satisfactory, which was expected given the nature of the

interview questions, which were informed by subscales identified in the questionnaires.

848 Iranian English language teachers' job satisfaction and organisational climate in public and private schools

Results

Quantitative findings

In this section, the descriptive statistics on the two major variables of the study are first

presented. We would then turn to inferential statistics. Table 1 contains the mean and

standard deviations of participants' scores on the six dimensions of job satisfaction (the

maximum possible score was five and the minimum was one). Table 1 shows overall low

scores on all dimensions of the job satisfaction measure, indicating that Iranian EFL

teachers in both the public and private sectors are dissatisfied with their teaching jobs.

The mean scores on the satisfaction dimensions are all below the neutral value of three on

the 5-point scale (Larsen-Hall, 2010), for both private and public school teachers. For

teachers in private language schools, the two dimensions with the highest scores are co-

worker relations (mean = 2.92, SD = .94) and promotion opportunities (mean = 2.70, SD = 1.06)

respectively, whilst the dimensions with the lowest mean scores for this group of teachers

are pay and job security (mean = 2.27, SD = .85) and job flexibility (mean = 2.34, SD = .97).

For language teachers in public schools, the dimensions with highest scores are co-worker

relations (mean = 2.83, SD = .90) and satisfaction with the work (mean = 2.81, SD = .66),

whilst the dimensions with lowest scores are job flexibility (mean = 2.23, SD = .79) and pay

and job security (mean = 2.28, SD = .82).

Table 1: Descriptive statistics of teachers' scores on job satisfaction dimensions

Job satisfaction

dimensions

Private schools

Public schools

Mean

Satisfaction with the work

2.64

0.90

2.81

0.66

Promotion opportunities

2.70

1.06

2.49

0.81

Pay and job security

2.27

0.85

2.28

0.82

Working conditions

2.64

0.64

2.76

0.53

Co-worker relations

2.92

0.94

2.83

0.90

Job flexibility (job efficiency)

2.34

0.97

2.23

0.79

Table 2 demonstrates participants' mean scores and their standard deviations for the

dimensions of organisational climate. For private language school teachers, the

organisational climate dimensions with the highest scores are principal leadership (mean =

3.33, SD = .86) and intimacy/warmth (mean = 3.34, SD = .47), followed by reward system

(mean = 2.91, SD = 1.01) and autonomy/decision-making (mean = 2.83, SD = .70), whilst the

dimension with the lowest score is school facilities (mean = 2.75, SD = .77). Like private

school participants, public school teachers scored highest on the intimacy/warmth dimension

(mean = 3.33, SD = .5) followed by reward system (mean = 2.94, SD = 1.13). English

teachers in public schools are most discontented with school facilities (mean = 2.13, SD =

.69) and principal leadership (mean = 2.58, SD = .75) dimensions of their organisational

climate.

Razavipour, & Yousefi 849

Table 2: Descriptive statistics of organisational climate dimensions

Organisational climate

dimensions

Private schools

Public schools

Mean

Principal leadership

3.33

0.86

2.58

0.75

Reward system

2.91

1.01

2.94

1.13

Autonomy/decision-making

2.83

0.70

2.89

0.72

Intimacy/warmth

3.34

0.47

3.33

0.50

School facilities

2.75

0.77

2.13

0.69

The first research question of the study investigated whether there was any significant

relationship between organisational climate and the participants’ job satisfaction. Table 3

shows the relationship between organisational climate and Iranian English teachers’ job

satisfaction.

Table 3: The correlations between organisational climate and job satisfaction

Correlations

Job satisfaction

Organisational

climate

Pearson correlation

.458

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000

128

As can be seen in Table 3, the Pearson correlation test shows a significant positive

relationship between the organisational climate of schools and English teachers’ job

satisfaction (r = .458, p < 0.01, N= 128). It should be noted that the data for both groups

of teachers are combined, indicating that whether teachers work in public or private

schools, organisational climate and job satisfaction are positively correlated.

Table 4 gives the results of the correlations between organisational climate dimensions

and EFL teachers' job satisfaction, based on the combined scores of both groups of

teachers.

Table 4: Relationship between organisational dimensions and job satisfaction

Correlations

Principal

leadership

Reward

system

Auton-

omy

Intimacy

School

facilities

Job

satisfaction

Pearson correlation

.434**

.359**

.396**

.282**

.160

Sig. (2-tailed)

.000

.001

.072

128

According to Table 4, except for school facilities, all organisational climate dimensions are

positively correlated with teachers’ job satisfaction. In other words, principal leadership,

reward system, autonomy, and intimacy are all in a direct positive correlation with the

degree EFL teachers are content with their jobs.

850 Iranian English language teachers' job satisfaction and organisational climate in public and private schools

Table 5 illustrates the correlations between organisational climate and teachers’ job

satisfaction in private and public schools separately.

Table 5: Relationship between organisational climate and the

job satisfaction of private and public school teachers

School

Organisational climate

p-value

Job satisfaction

State

.322**

.009

Private

.585**

.000

As can be seen for both public and private school teachers, there exists a significant

positive correlation between organisational climate and teachers’ job satisfaction.

Nonetheless, considering the coefficient of determination (Brown, 2005; Larsen-Hall,

2012), it is revealed that there is 34 percent (R

= .34) shared variance between climate and

job satisfaction in private schools, while the amount of shared variance between the two

for public school teachers is much lower (R

= .10). Judged by Cohen’s (1991) power

criteria the former is considered a large correlation while the latter is a medium one. This

indicates that issues of organisational climate are of more relevance to the job satisfaction

of teachers working in private language schools.

The second research question was concerned with how much of the variation in teachers'

job satisfaction could be accounted for by factors constituting the climate scale. In simple

terms, it seeks to determine the degree to which aspects of organisational climate predict

EFL teachers' feeling of job satisfaction. To this end, a multiple regression analysis was

conducted (Table 6).

Table 6: Multiple regression analysis for organisational

climate dimensions and teachers' job satisfaction

Dimensions

R²

p-value

.496

7.944

.000

Principal leadership

.242**

.037

Reward system

.204**

.023

Autonomy/decision-making

.170

.108

Intimacy/warmth

.026

.791

School facilities

-.045

.605

**p<0.05; Dependent variable: job satisfaction

As the R

coefficient indicates, almost half (49.6%) of the variance in teachers’ job

satisfaction was explained by the dimensions of school climate and the regression model,

explaining the impact of organisational climate factors on job satisfaction proved to be

valid (F=7.944; p=0.05). According to β values, teachers’ job satisfaction is mostly

influenced by principal leadership and the reward system. The autonomy and decision-making

dimension also contributes a good deal to the equation by explaining 17 percent of the

variance, though not showing statistical significance. The two dimensions of intimacy and

Razavipour, & Yousefi 851

warmth (β = .026), and school facilities (β = -.045) appeared to explain little of the variance in

the dependent variable.

The third research question of the study aimed to explore whether the organisational

climate of state schools and that of private language institutes are different. To compare

the means of the two groups of teachers on their reported perceptions of their affiliated

organisations, an independent samples t-test was carried out (Table 7).

Table 7: State and private schools' differences in terms of organisational climate

Organisational

climate

Sig.

t-test for equality of means

Sig.

(2-tailed)

Mean

differ-

ence

Std.

error

differ-

ence

95% confidence

interval of the

difference

Lower

Upper

Equal variances

assumed

8.055

.005

-2.50

126

.014

-.27

.10

-.489

-.057

Equal variances

not assumed

-2.50

119

.014

-.27

.109

-.489

-.057

Table 7 shows that there is a significant difference between the organisational climate of

state schools and that of private schools (t=2.50, df=126, p=.005). To examine how much

can be read into this result, the strength of association was estimated (Field, 2009; Hatch

& Lazartan, 1991), which yielded a relatively low value of .095, indicating that a

considerable amount of variance remains unaccounted for.

Qualitative findings

As noted earlier, to triangulate the data and to obtain more in-depth insights, semi-

structured interviews were conducted with twelve teachers. Three major themes emerged

from the interview data pertaining to principals, facilities, and relationships. In public

schools, teachers saw principals in a rather poor light mainly because of principals’

qualifications. Mina, an experienced female teacher in a state school said

I believe that my school’s principal is not qualified to run the school efficiently because I

think that one of the characteristics of a good principal is to pay attention to teachers’

ideas and requests. But unluckily, she does ignore our ideas and all of my colleagues are

dissatisfied with the situation prevailing in the school. She is also so strict with school

regulations.

Farhad, a male teacher with 24 years of teaching experience, made a similar comment.

In the school where I teach the school principal is not familiar with his duties. I mean

the school principal does not have the qualifications of a capable principal. He in fact

creates a negative school climate where nobody feels appreciated.

852 Iranian English language teachers' job satisfaction and organisational climate in public and private schools

Closely related to leadership was teachers’ agency, where private school teachers

apparently enjoyed higher levels of agency in their instructional decision making. Mahnaz,

a female teacher at a private school, remarked

I make decisions according to my own ideas. No one has control over my teaching

methods; we, teachers, can express and implement our ideas freely.

Likewise, Reza, a male teacher teaching in a private language school commented

I try to foster innovation within the school. The manager allows me to be autonomous

so that I can make my own decisions about my teaching job.

Conversely, in state schools, teachers enjoyed less autonomy. Zahra, a female teacher with

13 years of teaching experience at state schools, remarked that

I have no full autonomy in my job. Actually, my school principal makes decisions

regarding class-scheduling and my attitude toward her is negative. ... [She further added

that]... I have many constraints in my job and I have little freedom to choose my

teaching techniques.

The second theme emerging from interview data was school facilities. This sounds

plausible given that language teaching is particularly equipment-intensive. Public school

teachers complained more of insufficient school facilities. Marjan, a public school teacher

with 13 years of teaching experience opined

In my school, there is not adequate equipment, and the physical environment of the class

is not attractive... [She then continued that this aspect of organisational climate] ... has a

considerable impact on our job satisfaction.

However, private school teachers were more content with school resources. Ali, a male

PhD student teaching in a private language school, was highly satisfied with the resources.

I teach at a school where all classes enjoy cutting edge instructional technology, including

video projectors, heating and cooling systems; as well as comfortable tables and

armchairs.

Teachers across school types appeared to be rather uniformly positive on the final theme,

intimacy and warmth. Hosein, a public school male teacher commented

I have a friendly relationship with my colleagues and there is a warm climate between my

co-workers. There is indeed no conflict between us.

Likewise, Akram, a woman from a private school added,

In the school where I teach, there is a pleasant and warm climate among teachers. We

have no conflicts, and there is a sense of belonging among the teachers. We rely on each

other and we also feel committed to our occupation.

Razavipour, & Yousefi 853

Discussion

The current research studied the extent to which Iranian EFL teachers are content with

their language teaching job, how favourable their institutional climates are, and how EFL

teachers' job satisfaction is mediated by the climate of the institution wherein they work.

Findings of the study suggest that English teachers in both public and private schools are

not highly satisfied with their language teaching job. Moreover, the organisational climate

dimensions of security, payment and flexibility appear to cause the largest degree of

dissatisfaction among teachers in both types of language schools. As to how teachers'

sense of fulfilment is moderated by their perceptions of their institutional climate, the

major outcome of the study is that there exists a significant and positive relationship

between the organisational climate of language schools and EFL teachers’ job satisfaction.

It is of note that the strength of this relationship is greater for private school English

teachers. This was further corroborated by the more favourable climate that was found in

private language schools. Moreover, the two dimensions of principal leadership and reward

system appear to explain respectable amounts of variance in the outcome variable: teachers'

job satisfaction (β = .24; β = .2, respectively). As to the possible differences in the

organisational climate of public and private language schools, the results attest to a more

desirable climate in the latter, though the strength of association was quite low.

Concerning the overall relationship between organisational climate and EFL teachers' job

satisfaction, the results of the present study have precedents in the literature (Abu-Saad &

Hendrix, 1995; Adeymi, 2006; Selamat, Samsu & Kamalu, 2013; Vinay, 2011). The

collected evidence appears to suggest that, ceteris paribus, organisational climate is

associated with teachers’ contentment with their jobs.

Among organisational climate dimensions, principal leadership appeared to be the most

powerful predictor of job satisfaction, which is consistent with some previous research.

(e.g. Abu-Saad & Hendrix, 1995; Ghanizadeh & Jahedizadeh, 2014; Rostami, Ghanizadeh

& Ghapanchi, 2015; Vinay, 2011). Likewise, Rostami et. al found that organisational

climate explained considerable variance in teacher burn-out. On the other hand, our

results diverge from those of Abu-Saad and Hendrix (1995) in that unlike their findings,

the reward system in our case predicted a considerable portion of variation in teachers' job

satisfaction. Currently, in Iran, establishing an English language centre is a matter of doing

some paper work, with no strict managerial or language education requirements being in

place. This might be one fundamental source of dissatisfaction with management in

English language teaching institutions.

To make sense of the findings of the study, we must not lose sight of the larger

socioeconomic context wherein participants of this study are acting. The observation that

the reward system outweighs some other theoretically crucial dimensions in explaining

EFL teachers' job satisfaction attests to language teachers' financially poor status in both

public and private sectors, which is a rather universal situation (Mizala & Nopo, 2016).

Consistent with Maslow's (1943) hierarchy of needs, English teachers must not be

expected to harbour ulterior motives while their lower needs have not yet been fulfilled.

854 Iranian English language teachers' job satisfaction and organisational climate in public and private schools

Regarding the significant explanatory power of principal leadership, again findings make

sense given the power that is accorded to principals in Iran's centralised educational

system, where principals are selected in a top-down approach. One might counter-argue

that the findings might make sense for public schools, where all decisions are made in a

top-down fashion but not for private institutes with less centrally based agendas. Two

points are noteworthy here. First, the license to establish a private language school is

granted by government authorities. Therefore, control does not completely vanish.

Secondly, in a private school the principal, who is usually the owner, enjoys full autonomy

and power in his or her hiring and paying decisions. It follows that how language teachers

fare in these schools must be greatly influenced by the language school manager.

This finding that private language institutes enjoy more favourable organisational climates

is somehow counter-intuitive given the fact that EFL teachers in private language

institutes receive lower wages, work on an hourly basis, and lack job security. It might be

argued that in comparison with state schools, private language schools have a more

desired climate because teachers have a higher degree of autonomy and more freedom of

decision-making in their instructional practices, the interpersonal relationships are

stronger, and there is a sense of solidarity among teachers. These, however, have to be

substantiated through further research. A more rational justification may have to do with

expectations because research demonstrates that one's perceptions of organisational

fairness and equality are mediated by one's expectations (Cherry, Ordóñez & Gilliland,

2002; Gilliland & Chan, 2001). Consistent with findings concerning expectations in

comparison theories, since teachers in private schools do not enjoy tenure contracts, they

harbour much lower expectations than their counterparts in public schools, who are

tenured and enjoy full job security. Therefore, private schools' EFL teachers' expectations

are easier to meet or surpass. Since their minimal expectations are fulfilled, their

perceptions of their organisational climate would be more positive. Again, further research

is needed to probe the precise mechanism that creates the different perceptions of

organisational climate.

Conclusion: Implications and further inquiry

Whilst managerial and organisational issues have been subjected to extensive educational

research reporting in the international literature, in all fields and sectors of education,

these issues have received little attention in ELT research, in the contexts of Iran and

other countries. The authors of the present paper encountered the view from some ELT

journals that it was deemed outside the domain of language teaching. This could reflect an

over-emphasis on research into individual teacher factors, whilst larger managerial and

organisational issues receive less research attention. We should avoid being restricted by a

seemingly tacit assumption in ELT that the language teacher with the right language and

pedagogical skills is the sufficient and necessary factor to guarantee optimum outcomes.

We believe that to improve upon the status quo in language teaching, more attention

needs to be given to the organisation and management of language education

environments. This can be accomplished in both pre-service and in-service language

teacher training programs. We would like to suggest that time is ripe for higher education

Razavipour, & Yousefi 855

institutions in charge of language teaching programs to offer courses on language program

management. Moreover, program evaluators should not ignore the determining role of

organisational issues in their assessment of language teaching and learning programs.

This study could barely scratch the surface of one of the myriad of organisational issues at

stake in English language teaching. With regard to research in ELT, not much has

changed since Alderson’s (2009) call for serious attention to institutional concerns in ELT.

Given the powerful influence that organisations can exert on individual EFL teachers and

learners, institutional considerations deserve more scholarly attention. Future studies

accommodating a more diverse sample of language institutes and with larger sample of

participants would further our understanding of how institutional factors play out in

English language teaching. More urgently needed are studies focusing on how different

climates in language institutes lead to differential gains in language learning. To such an

end, studies adopting hierarchical linear modeling approaches likely would shed further

light on the interaction of institutional and individuals factors in English language

learning. Furthermore, studies crossing national boundaries to study the institutional

climates of language institutes in various countries with different governing systems would

provide insights as to the interplay of political systems and the management of language

institutes. Moreover, there are numerous other organisational considerations that wait for

further inquiry behind the impervious walls of the individual-oriented ELT. Issues such as

organisational justice, fairness, and organisational culture and discourse are just a few

examples. Finally, how other teacher factors such as teacher reflection, cognition, burn-

out, self-efficacy, and professional development are mediated by institutional

considerations are all fascinating areas for future inquiry.

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858 Iranian English language teachers' job satisfaction and organisational climate in public and private schools

Kioumars Razavipour holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics and is currently a faculty

member of the Department of English language and literature, Shahid Chamran

University of Ahvaz, Iran. His areas of interests include language assessment and

language policy.

Email: razavipur57@gmail.com

Moslem Yousefi is a PhD student in TEFL at Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran.

His research interests include teacher professional development, sociocognitive

approaches to second language acquisition, qualitative research, school organisational

climate, culture, and critical discourse analysis.

Email: moslem1998yousefi@gmail.com

Please cite as: Razavipour, K. & Yousefi, M. (2017). Iranian English language teachers'

job satisfaction and organisational climate in public and private schools. Issues in

Educational Research, 27(4), 842-858. http://www.iier.org.au/iier27/razavipour.pdf