School Teachers Motivation

Research in different places had found out that school teachers are among those professionals with the highest rate of job stress (Stoeber and Rennert, 2008). The main factor that causes an employee stress in their works is low motivation in doing their job, thus it will affect their job satisfaction. So job stress, low motivation and job satisfaction s related to one another. The definition of motivation is essentially about what drives a person to work in a particular way and with a given amount of effort (Cole, 2009). In other words, it is what urges someone for their actions, desires and needs. For job satisfaction, it is about how content and employee towards the job whether his / her like it or not (Spector, 1997). In the research literature,

There are many causes that led to the increase of this problem. Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2011) stated that the negative evaluation judgement from citizens may reduce their motivation. High emotional exhaustion also prevent them from enjoying their work such because they do not get enough support from leader and colleagues. Next, teachers always facing the problem with time pressure. High number of assignment provide a very dense schedule which cause them to have less time for recovery and rest. These causes led to the problem of low motivation and job satisfaction among the teachers.

There are many solution to overcome this problem. The first solution is by increasing the feelings of belongings of the teachers. According to Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2011), feeling of belongings can be defined as the feelings of being accepted by others, like the school’s leadership and being trusted by the colleagues. This is important to ensure that the teachers will not feel alone in completing their job when they got enough support. This feelings can be enhanced by creating the supportive environment

Shah et al. (2012) stated that motivation and job performance of employees can be increase considerably if more attention is given on employees reward and their recognition. Top management of school which is the head headmaster can give recognition by approaches the teacher which has excellent classroom management and teacher which has creative way in teaching and ask them to share some of their special skill. This helps to show that their work is being appreciated. Sometimes thing that teacher need the most is not the reward but to be appreciate for their work by saying a simple “thank you”. Although the word “thank you” is simple, it actually a very powerful words because just by saying the word it can make someone's day. The headmaster can introduce the culture of saying “thank you” by promoting saying thank you during briefings or as part of assemblies in front of pupils and as well as in front of others. According to Shah et al. (2012) just by giving appreciation alone is not enough because there is no value in intrinsic reward like acknowledgement, authorization and admirations when there are no extrinsic rewards. School management can give reward to teacher by sharing the teacher’s achievement to social media platforms like Facebook to celebrate their success. This help teachers to reaffirm the commitment and dedication of the teacher. In conclusion, the management of the