Abstract: Teachers have been increasingly presented with significant occupational health problems.
The psycho-social problem of teachers results from heavy work burden, heavy life pressure, and high
expectation from children’s parents, harassment about interpersonal relationship and the shortage of
their knowledge on psychological health. Positive environment is the basis for psycho-social health, so
creating a stress-free and harmonious environment comes first in order to maintain teac hers’ psychosocial problems. Descriptive survey method was used. The sample for the study was selected as 197
elementary women teachers working in government and private schools by using stratified random
sampling from the districts of Wokha, Kohima and Dimapur of Nagaland.
The results reveal that majority of the elementary school women teachers have average level of psychosocial problems and the elementary schools in Nagaland have controlled and familiar climate. There is
low disengagement, low alienation, moderate esprit, moderate intimacy, low psycho -physical
hindrance, moderate controls, moderate production emphasis and moderate humanized thrust. There
is no significant difference between school organisation climate and psycho -social problems of
elementary school women teachers working in government and private schools in Nagaland. It was
also found out that the women with very high psycho-social problems have high correlation with their
school organization climate.
Z Score,T Score, Percential Rank and Box Plot Graph
PSYCHO-SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WOMEN TEACHERS IN RELATION TO THEIR SCHOOL ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE
1. 1634
AMERICAN RESEARCH THOUGHTS
ISSN: 2392 – 876X
Available online at: www.researchthoughts.us
http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1431455
Volume 1 │ Issue 7 │ May 2015
Impact Factor: 2.0178 (UIF)
PSYCHO-SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL WOMEN TEACHERS IN RELATION TO
THEIR SCHOOL ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE
Dr. Nimisha Beri
Asst. Professor Dept. of Education, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, India
Abstract: Teachers have been increasingly presented with significant occupational health problems.
The psycho-social problem of teachers results from heavy work burden, heavy life pressure, and high
expectation from children’s parents, harassment about interpersonal relationship and the shortage of
their knowledge on psychological health. Positive environment is the basis for psycho-social health, so
creating a stress-free and harmonious environment comes first in order to maintain teachers’ psycho-
social problems. Descriptive survey method was used. The sample for the study was selected as 197
elementary women teachers working in government and private schools by using stratified random
sampling from the districts of Wokha, Kohima and Dimapur of Nagaland.
The results reveal that majority of the elementary school women teachers have average level of psycho-
social problems and the elementary schools in Nagaland have controlled and familiar climate. There is
low disengagement, low alienation, moderate esprit, moderate intimacy, low psycho-physical
hindrance, moderate controls, moderate production emphasis and moderate humanized thrust. There
is no significant difference between school organisation climate and psycho-social problems of
elementary school women teachers working in government and private schools in Nagaland. It was
also found out that the women with very high psycho-social problems have high correlation with their
school organization climate.
Key words: Psychosocial problems, School organizational climate, elementary teachers
INTRODUCTION
Education is the heart of the development process of every developing nation.
Development of the country means improving the life of its citizens as a whole.
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Education being a continuous process of learning, a teacher is a key figure, an element
of educative process. It is teacher who transfer knowledge as well as bring positive
changes, promote healthy training and active integration into society in the students.
Teacher also plays the role of a moral and educational guide. Teachers in the
performance of their professional roles and responsibilities often encounter a range of
interpersonal and task demands, some of which tend to be quite stressful for them.
They respond to situations in which they find that either outcome are uncertain or these
give rise to negative emotional states and outcomes, by making a variety of attribution,
behavioural, physiological and psychological responses. Hence due to grave challenges
in education and heavy demands made on teachers for different roles, psycho-social
problems affect the health of teachers especially women as they had to cope with the
demands of workplace. Working conditions affect subjective health over time. Lath and
Sharma (2010) concluded that teachers are more stressed because of lack of support and
environment. The socio-economic condition of teachers is far from satisfactory. Hence
their mental well-being deteriorates.
Privatization and globalization is being tried in education as well. Private
institutions are being encouraged to provide education on commercial basis. For cutting
down expenditure on education and amplifying materialistic attitude, government is
left with no alternative except privatization of education. This policy of the government
has led to financial and academic exploitation of the teacher as well. The teacher’s
health is being affected which in turn will affect students learning environment and
their professional career in future. Lack of professional autonomy, improper human
relations among teachers, political interference, autocratic attitude of bureaucrats and
denial of teachers professional rights have led to their dissatisfaction. Resent research
suggest that as physical demands in the work place diminish, various aspects of the
social environment of workplace and psychological futures of the job, may play an
increasingly important part in affecting employees health and wellbeing (Theorell,
Berkman and Kawachi, 2000).
Further, the accelerating pace of social, the rise in demand on teachers, the
uncertainties regarding educational reform coupled with scarcity of resources and
deteriorating social image of the teachers are some of the factors behind what has been
labelled “Teachers Distress”. Today’s teachers no longer enjoy the same dignity and
respect as our traditional teachers. They are looked upon as mere professionals working
to let the both hands meet and hence all these causes are dissecting her inner peace of
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mind resulting in psycho-social problems. Ana (2011) in her study reported greater
stress in women than man professors. Hence, recognition of psycho-social problems to
seek promising solutions becomes quite important so that educated working women
can give their best to the society, to the nation and the world at large.
As a teacher, woman’s vital impact is powerfully and visibly reflected in the
conduct and character of pupils. It is she who transfers the knowledge as well as the
positive changes to the following generation and also promote healthy training of
students and their active integration into society. Hence, due to grave challenges in
education and heavy demands made by society on teachers for different roles, stress is
sure to overpower and affect the mental health of all teachers, especially women
teachers as they play dual role in the family and workplace to cope with both conditions
and hence their mental wellbeing is deteriorated.
Rose and colleagues (2002) have found a very strong link between
Organizational Climate and employee reactions such as stress levels, absenteeism,
commitment and participation. School climate enhances or minimizes emotional
exhaustion, depersonalization, and feelings of low personal accomplishment (Grayson
& Alvarez, 2008).Teachers' perceptions of school climate influence their ability to
implement school-based character and development programs (Beets et al., 2008).
To draw out the best of creative talent and intellectual potentialities of women in
workplace as well as in domestic life, there is a need to recognize psycho-social
problems and study them for seeking promising solutions and also to give women
teachers the worthy attention, dignity and cooperation that they richly deserve.
The educational scenario in Nagaland shows that the teacher, the main agent of change
through education, undergoes so many stress and strain during the discharge of his/her
duties. Organizational climate or environment of a workplace is one of the factors that
explicitly or implicitly influence the level of psycho-social problems of teachers which,
in turn, is likely to have bearing on their performance. Therefore dire need was felt to
undertake a study for investigating and exploring psycho-social problems that affect
women teachers working in Elementary Schools of Nagaland in relation to their school
organizational climate so that there is awareness about these problems and also
solutions to overcome them.
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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To explore the psycho-social problems and the school organization climate of
elementary school women teachers in Nagaland.
2. To find out the difference between psycho-social problems of elementary school
women teachers working in government and private schools in Nagaland.
3. To find out the difference between psycho-social problems of elementary school
women teachers working in rural and urban schools of Nagaland.
4. To find out the difference between the school organizational climate of
government and private schools in Nagaland.
5. To find out the difference between the school organizational climate of rural and
urban schools in Nagaland.
6. To explore the relationship between psycho-social problems and school
organizational climate of elementary schools women teachers of Nagaland.
HYPOTHESIS
1. There is no significant difference between the psycho-social problems and the
school organization climate of elementary school women teachers in Nagaland.
2. There is no significant difference between psycho-social problems of elementary
school women teachers working in government and private schools in Nagaland.
3. There is no significant difference between psycho-social problems of elementary
school women teachers working in rural and urban schools in Nagaland.
4. There is no significant difference between the schools organizational climate of
government and private schools in Nagaland.
5. There is no significant difference between the schools organizational climate of
rural and urban schools in Nagaland.
6. The psycho-social problems of elementary school women teachers of Nagaland
have no relationship with their school organizational climate.
METHODOLOGY
A descriptive survey method was employed. 200 elementary school women teachers
were selected as the sample for the study. Data was collected by using stratified random
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sampling technique. The data was collected from elementary schools of Wokha, Kohima
and Dimapur districts of Nagaland. The tools adopted for the study were:
1. Psycho-Social Problems of Educated Working Women Scale by Hundal (2002).
2. School Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire by Dr. Motilal Sharma
(1978)
FINDINGS
After collecting data from 197 elementary teachers it was analysed keeping in view the
objective and hypotheses of the study by applying the percentage, mean, SD, t-test and
correlation.
It was found that social problems among employed women are caused by jobs
which involve outdoor work, when quantum of work and family responsibilities cannot
be done on a single day, domestic helps are not easily available, when they have to
sacrifice the interest of family for excelling in chosen fields, when children are neglected
due to absence from home, when they have to live independently outside the family
circle and when they are denied help from friends.
The employed women suffer from psychological problems when they feel
insecure about their children, when they cannot concentrate properly on the children
because they work outside the home, conflict of ideology with husband in-laws, when
job and family life tend to interfere with each other, conflict and contradiction due to
neglect and lack of interaction, when retention in memory decreases due to heavy work
load, when they suffer from physical and mental fatigue, they have a guilty feeling
because they do not have enough time for children, when they feel anxious for their
young children when at work place, due to heavy work load it is difficult to get sound
sleep and when considered less capable than men.
It was also found that in Group Behaviour Characteristics schools have
Controlled Climate and in Leadership Behaviour Characteristics schools have Familiar
Climate. It was also found that there is low disengagement, low alienation, moderate
esprit, moderate intimacy, low psycho-physical hindrance, moderate controls, moderate
production emphasis and moderate humanized thrust among the school teachers.
Thus the findings reveal that majority of the elementary school women teachers have
average level of psycho-social problems. The reason may be that they may have faced
some sort of anxiety, frustration, depression and stress that makes them not at all free of
6. Nimisha Beri- PSYCHO-SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WOMEN TEACHERS IN
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psycho-social problems. Kaur, Ravinder and Kaur, Naginder (2012) in their study found
out that women teacher of Punjab falls in the group of average level (70%) of psycho-
social problems.
Also elementary schools have controlled and familiar organizational climate.
There is low disengagement, low alienation, moderate esprit, moderate intimacy, low
psycho-physical hindrance, moderate controls, moderate production emphasis and
moderate humanized thrust. Thus it is found that there exist differences between the
psycho-social problems and the school organization climate of elementary school
women teachers in Nagaland.
Variables Group N Mean SD T value
Psycho-Social
problems
Government 100 242.52 47.37
0.45
Private 97 245.04 28.28
Table1: Mean, SD and T value of govt. and private elementary school women teachers with
regard to psycho-social problems
*Significance at 0.05 level with 195df Tab.t=1.97
Table 1 signifies that their exist no significant difference between Psycho-Social
Problems of elementary Women Teachers in government and private schools in
Nagaland The elementary women teachers in private schools have higher mean value.
They seem to have high psycho-social problems as compared to elementary women
teachers in government schools.
Variables Group N Mean SD T value
Psycho-social
problems
Urban 100 244.13 31.13
0.19
Rural 97 243.38 21.21
Table 2: Mean, SD and T value of urban and rural elementary women teachers with regard to
psycho-social problems
*Significance at 0.05 level with 195df Tab.t=1.97
Table 2 signifies that there exists no significant difference between Psycho-Social
Problems of elementary Women Teachers in urban and rural schools in Nagaland. The
elementary women teachers in urban schools have higher mean value. They seem to
have high psycho-social problems as compared to elementary women teachers in rural
7. Nimisha Beri- PSYCHO-SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WOMEN TEACHERS IN
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schools. Kaur, Ravinder and Kaur, Naginder. (2012) in their study also found out that
there is no significant difference between psycho-social problems of women teachers
working in urban and rural schools of Punjab.
Variables Group N Mean SD T value
Disengagement
Government 100 14.25 2.12
6.15
Private 97 15.48 0.00
Alienation
Government 100 8.17 0.70
0.43
Private 97 8.20 0.00
Esprit
Government 100 22.34 1.41
0.28
Private 97 22.43 2.82
Intimacy
Government 100 22.40 4.94
0.53
Private 97 22.13 1.41
Psycho-physical
Hindrance
Government 100 10.49 1.41
7.18
Private 97 11.71 0.70
Controls
Government 100 14.14 1.41
0.00
Private 97 14.40 2.12
Production-emphasis
Government 100 17.76 2.82
0.93
Private 97 18.04 0.70
Humanized Thrust
Government 100 32.70 4.94
1.98
Private 97 33.71 1.41
Table 3: Mean, SD and T value of govt. and private elementary school women
teachers on organizational climate and its dimensions
Significance at 0.05 level with 195df Tab.t=1.97
Keeping in view the main objectives of the present study t-test was employed to see the
difference between teachers of private and government schools on the two measured
variables and their respective dimensions. The table 3 reveals that private school
teachers feel more disengagement, face more psycho-physical hindrance and at the
same experience more humanized thrust in their school than government school
teachers. The results reveal that there is no significant difference between the schools
organizational climate of government and private schools in Nagaland. Data reveals
that the organizational climates in private schools have higher mean value in all the
dimensions. They seem to have better school organizational climate as compared to
government schools. Zeenat Zahoor (2012) in her study partially proved that teachers of
8. Nimisha Beri- PSYCHO-SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WOMEN TEACHERS IN
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private and government schools differ significantly with each other on organizational
climate and its dimensions.
Variables Group N Mean SD T value
Disengagement
Urban 100 15.35 0.45
7.14
Rural 97 14.35 1.41
Alienation
Urban 100 8.31 1.63
1.25
Rural 97 8.06 0.70
Esprit
Urban 100 23.10 2.19
2.65
Rural 97 21.64 4.94
Intimacy
Urban 100 23.03 2.84
4.31
Rural 97 21.48 2.12
Psycho- physical
Hindrance
Urban 100 11.22 0.15
1.23
Rural 97 10.95 2.12
Controls
Urban 100 14.75 1.94
2.80
Rural 97 13.77 2.82
Production-emphasis
Urban 100 18.33 3.06
2.93
Rural 97 17.45 0.70
Humanized Thrust
Urban 100 33.53 7.44
0.88
Rural 97 32.85 2.12
Table 4: Mean, SD and T value of urban and rural elementary school women teachers on
organizational climate and its dimensions
*Significance at 0.05 level with 195df Tab.t=1.97
The result obtained from table 4 also reveal that urban school teachers feel more
disengagement, experience more intimacy and experience more controls than rural
school teachers. The result reveals that there is no significant difference between the
schools organizational climate of urban and rural schools in Nagaland. Data reveals that
the organizational climates in urban schools have higher mean value in all the
dimensions. They seem to have better school organizational climate as compared to
rural schools.
Over all the relationship between school organizational climate and psycho-
social problems at very low, low, moderate, high and very high levels reveal that
schools organizational climate are open, autonomous and closed. On the basis of result
obtained it was found that the relationship between women teachers with very low
level of Psycho-social problems and school organizational climate there exist very high
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correlation between Psycho-social problems and Esprit, Psycho-social problems and
Controls, Psycho-social problems and Production-emphasis; with low level of Psycho-
social problems and school organizational climate it was found that there is very high
correlation between Psycho-social problems and Intimacy, Psycho-social problems and
Humanized-Thrust; with average level of Psycho-social problems and school
organizational climate on it was found that there is very high correlation between
Psycho-social problems and Esprit, Psycho-social problems and Psycho-physical
Hindrance, Psycho-social problems and Humanized-Thrust and between women
teachers with very high level of Psycho-social problems and school organizational
climate, it was found that there is very high correlation between Psycho-social problems
and Intimacy and Psycho-social problems and Humanized-Thrust.
Thus it was also found that the women with very high psycho-social problems
have high correlation with their school organization climate. This means that the
psycho-social problems of elementary school women teachers of Nagaland have no
relationship with their school organization climate.
CONCLUSIONS
Thus, based on the findings of this study, the followings are some recommendations
that would be beneficial for the future practices and future researches. It is
recommended that families should share the responsibilities of domestic obligations to
reduce the burden of working women. Family members especially in-laws should be
encouraging and provide congenial atmosphere for working women. Heavy workloads
should be not be burdened upon working women as it cause retention in memory,
physical and mental fatigue. Society should accept the fact that working women are as
capable as men, have the right leadership qualities. In school the Principal should
provide constructive criticism and give suggestions to correct teacher’s mistakes.
Teachers should not be burden with too much of administrative work. Staff meetings
should not be like a business conferences. The behaviour pattern of the principal and
the staff members should be less formal and impersonal. Friendly social relations
should exist among the staff members and Principal’s behaviour should not be
dictatorial, treat teachers humanly and tender-heartedly.
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