Relationship Between Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction among Teachers in Tanzanian Public Primary Schools

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction among teachers in Tanzania public secondary schools. The study used a sample of 618 teachers from 51 public schools located in Morogoro Municipality. Multiple regression analysis was used which involved stress related to working conditions, stress related to leadership and stress related to workload as independent variables. Age, gender and education level were used as control variables. It was found that stress related to working environment (β= -.198, p=.001), stress related to leadership (β= -.141, p=.015) and stress related to workload (β= -.270, p=.042) have a significant negative relationship with job satisfaction. Two control variables; gender (female) (β= -1.735, p=.000) and education level (β = -.501, p=.046) were also found to have a significant negative relationship with job satisfaction while age (β= .705, p= .004) was found to have a significant positive relationship. The study recommends provision of leadership training to heads, deputy heads and all people holding leadership positions in public primary schools, employing more teachers in schools, allocation of manageable workloads to teachers and improvement of teachers’ working environment to help them increasing job satisfaction.