Introduction and Summary
Turnover among teachers is a significant problem that has a considerable impact on the US educational system. Therefore, addressing turnover in public schools has become a widely discussed topic of educational and administrative research. An article by Mousa and Alas (2016) proposes that of the methods to solve the identified problem is by increasing organizational commitment among teachers by encouraging workplace spirituality. The authors suggest that the promotion of workplace spirituality is an effective strategy to address hyper stress among teachers caused by high demands and expectations imposed by public schools. The present paper aims at analyzing the research article by revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the research design.
The authors of the article conducted a correlational study to identify relationships between organizational commitment and workplace spirituality. The authors justified the importance of their research by providing a substantial literature review, which revealed that workplace spirituality is an under-explored matter. The researchers operationalized organizational commitment into three variables using a questionnaire based on the three-dimensional model of organizational commitment (affective, continuance, and normative). The research measured spirituality using a questionnaire utilized in previous research as well. The authors collected the data from a sample of 200 Egyptian public primary school teachers. The collected data were analyzed using Pearson’s R coefficient and regression analysis in the statistical package for social studies (SPSS) software. The results of the analyses revealed a significant correlation between meaningful work and a sense of community and organizational commitment approaches (affective, continuance, and normative). The results implied that workplace spirituality leads to “better quality of work by decreasing employees’ levels of absenteeism and rates of turnover” (Mousa & Alas, 2016). In summary, the article described an effective method of addressing turnover rates among public school teachers.
Critical Analysis
The credentials of the authors of the article are appropriate for the scope of the article and its purpose. Mohamed Mousa is an Associate Editor in the Journal of Management Development, an Associate Professor of Management at WSB University, Dabrowie Gornicza (Poland). He is also a former Post Doctorate researcher at Oulu Business School (Finland) and Cardiff Metropolitan University (UK). He has 45 publications in business and management with more than 17,500 reads and 200 citations. The majority of publications touch upon workplace diversity, managing cultural differences, and responsible leadership. Ruth Alas, the co-writer, also specializes in management of different organizations. She is currently working on various research at Estonian Business School. She has 161 publications with more than 47,000 reads and 1,500 citations. In summary, both authors of the article are credible due to many professional accomplishments in the sphere. Even though these authors do focus their research on education, their knowledge is relevant to the question of teacher turnover, as it is a multi-sided question that can be addressed from different angles.
The structure of the article is coherent, and the logic is clear. The intended audience of the article were administrative personnel of public schools. The authors provide a clear introduction that includes background information, identifies the purpose of the research, and explains its importance. However, the problem the researchers are trying to address is not stated clearly. The literature review is comparatively short; yet, it can be explained by limited knowledge in the sphere. The majority of sources were up-to-date at the time of publication, which helped to clearly identify the gap in knowledge, articulate the hypotheses, and select the methods. The methodology and results sections are concise and provide only relevant information. However, the discussion could benefit from explaining the implications of the study in greater detail. Moreover, the recommendation for future research as well as discussion of limitations of the study are not included, which is vital for this section according to Creswell (2012). In summary, the structure of the article is adequate; however, it can benefit from including a problem statement and discussion of implications and limitations of findings.
There are both strengths and limitations to the research design. On the one hand, the methods utilized by the authors are associated with high validity and reliability. The authors utilized instruments created and validated by previous research, which implies that the questionnaires measure what they are meant to measure. At the same time, the utilization of quantitative analysis is associated with a high reliability of findings (Creswell, 2012). The correlational and regression analyses are appropriate methods for the correlational studies, according to Creswell (2012). The regression models are easy to understand, which means that they can become a solid basis for future research. On the other hand, the findings are limited only to primary school teachers in Egypt, limiting the generalizability of results. Moreover, the sampling methods are not described, which means that it can become a source of bias (Cresswell, 2012). Finally, the participants were mostly Muslims, which limits the applicability of findings to the United States.
Conclusion
High turnover rates among teachers is a significant problem that affects the educational system in the US, and encouraging workplace spirituality can become a viable strategy to address the issue. My experience demonstrates that religious teachers that are free to use their philosophy in the classroom are more resistant to stress and have more sense of purpose. This leads to increased satisfaction among teachers and improved retention rates. The article analyzed in the present paper confirms my observations. As the results received by Mousa and Alas (2012) are of high validity and reliability, the study can be used as a basis for my future research.
References
- Creswell, J.W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Pearson.
- Mousa, M., & Alas, R. (2016). Workplace spirituality and organizational commitment: A study on the public schools teachers in Menoufia (Egypt). African Journal of Business Management, 10(10), 247.