Organisational support and teachers’ performance: The moderating role of job crafting

Abstract

Orientation: Teachers fulfil an essential role in students’ learning and the prosperity of nations. Hence, teacher performance, and the determinants thereof, are vital to understand.

Research purpose: To extend the conversation on teacher performance in a non-WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialised and democratic) nation, the authors aimed to investigate potential factors that may influence teachers’ performance, specifically from the perspective of perceived organisational support (POS) and job crafting.

Motivation for the study: Due to the widespread impact of teacher performance and the potential of both POS and job crafting to enable it, it is valuable to investigate the collective effect of these variables on individual work performance.

Research approach/design and method: This quantitative cross-sectional study involved 207 teachers conveniently sampled from private educational organisations in Gauteng. The Survey of Perceived Organisational Support, Job Crafting Questionnaire and an Individual Work Performance Subscale were administered to assess the study variables. Structural equation modelling was employed to confirm the dimensionality of the scales, followed by moderation analysis for hypothesis testing.

Main findings: The results of the moderation analysis showed that the effect of POS on teachers’ performance is conditional upon teachers’ job crafting behaviours in the organisation. More specifically, organisational support matters for teachers’ performance but only for those with low to moderate levels of job crafting.

Practical/managerial implications: Organisations could implement interventions to enhance teachers’ perceptions of support from the organisation to improve their performance. Simultaneously, organisations can invest in interventions that teach teachers to craft their jobs and create organisational environments that foster job crafting behaviours.

Contribution/value-add: The study contributes to the limited body of literature on teachers’ performance in a developing context and literature on organisational support and job crafting.