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MEDIATING ROLE OF WORK ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN BURNOUT AND

TURNOVER INTENTION AMONG EDUCATORS IN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS

Conference Paper · December 2017

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 RVIM Journal of Management Research (Vol.9, Issue 2, 2017 (ISSN 0974-6722)
MEDIATING ROLE OF WORK ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN BURNOUT AND
TURNOVER INTENTION AMONG EDUCATORS IN HIGHER EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS

Samini Varghese1
Research Scholar,
Christ University,
Bangalore;
India
[email protected]

and

Dr. Jyothi Kumar2

Associate Professor,
Department of management studies,
Christ University,
Bangalore.
India.
[email protected]
 Abstract:
In the present competitive environment, employee retention is of genuine concern in
every organization. Human Resource incontestably is the most important resource of any
organization and also is of significance in Educational Institutions since they are a service
industry. Furthermore, an increasing number of institutions are understanding that retaining
human intellectual capital is fast becoming the key source of maintain competitive edge. Higher
Educational institutions are becoming vulnerable to losing their highly qualified knowledge and
talented staff and therefore the importance of retaining educators are matters that have resulted in
the increased interest in variables, such as work engagement, job satisfaction, burnout etc, that
may influence employee retention.
In this study educators in higher education institution in Bangalore constitute the
population. This study focus of the mediating relation of work engagement between burnout and
turnover intention. For the analysis of the study an empirical study using a survey method is used
to collect primary data. Data is gathered using a structured and standard questionnaire. The
generated data are subjected to standard statistical procedures, such as descriptive statistics,
internal reliability and correlation etc., The Findings of the study imply that there is a significant
relationship between burnout, work engagement and turnover intention. It also shows the
mediating role of work engagement between burnout and turnover intention. The study also
implies that while formulating policies and procedures it is important that the management need
to recognize the importance of work engagement as a mediator to turnover intention. It also
suggests that by improving work engagement the effect of burnout can be reduced and will
thereby decrease turnover intention among the employee.
Key Words: Burnout, Work Engagement, Turnover intention, Educators, Higher Educational
Institutions.
JEL Code: J 63, M 12, M54
Introduction
Educational institutions plays an important and crucial part in creation and formation of
knowledge for future talent. According to (Coetzee and Rothmann, 2004), academics are
essential to societal life, as they are accountable for imparting knowledge to the leaders of the
society as well as for conducting advanced scientific research and developing knowledge. But in
today’s fast moving and competitive world educational institutions are facing new challenges
such as technological changes, diversity in workforce, demographical changes. Higher
educational institutions are in jeopardy to losing their skilled and talented employees to well paid
job offers from global higher educational institutions (Ngobeni & Bezuidenhout, 2011). These
challenges are initiating the managements of educational institutions to proactively formulate
policies and strategies in an effort to retain talented employees and to remain competitive. In a
era where intellectual capital in any organization is becoming the most important asset to
maintain competitive advantage, retention strategies are critical and need to be taken seriously.
Large number of educational institutions today are realizing the need to release the untapped
potential of their intellectual capital in order to remain successful in an increasingly competitive
global economy (Burke & Cooper, 2008; Burke & El-Kot, 2010; Lawler, 2008). In this respect,
understanding the factors that keep employees in their current jobs is crucial in employing and
retaining talented staff (Lawler & Finegold, 2000; Michaels, HandfieldJones & Axelrod, 2001).
In the time of globalization, turnover is a steady issue in organizations and it is present in
every organization irrespective of the type and size of the organization. Employee turnover is an
every organization face particularly in the field of human resource management. When an
employee quits an organization, the ability of the remaining employees to finish their duties may
be disturbed. Turnover is an excruciating issue in any organization, in the era of intense
competition the organizations attempt to limit their turnover ratio and save their cost, turnover
cost includes the cost of recruitment, selection, training and development of the employees to
empower them to perform well and to gain competitive advantage.
Retaining talented employees is becoming essential in every organization as it increases
the human capital and thereby becomes the key source of competitive advantage (Halawi et al.,
2005; Pfeffer, 2005). Organizations today are aware of the drawback of having high employee
turnover and are focusing on retaining talented employees, keeping them engaged and focused to
the job (Frank, Finnegan & Taylor, 2004). It is therefore paramount importance to take
necessary steps in retaining skilled employees as a result to reduce turnover (Hillmer, Hillmer &
McRoberts, 2004).
Literature Review
Work Engagement and Turnover intention
Work Engagement is referred to as the level of devotion of an employee where he wishes
to do his job effectively for the benefit of himself and that of his organization. Work engagement
has been defined by many researchers in many ways but the most popular definitions is
described by Schaufeli and Salanova (2002). Work engagement is defined as “as “positive,
fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is described by vigor, dedication, and absorption”
(Schaufeli and Salanova, 2001). It is interesting to note that work engagement is described as a
construct opposite to burnout. This has been tested and confirmed in various organizational
settings (Schaufeli, Martinez, et al., 2002, Bakker, Demerouti, and Schaufeli, 2005, Hallberg, et
al., 2007).
Dedicated employees are passionate to work hard with a positive state of mind, therefore
their valuable talent is cause for achievement in the workplace (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). The
significance of work engagement(participation) has shown that antecedents and outcomes such
as job satisfaction, performance and turnover intention can be mediated through the role of work
engagement which is effected by work related feelings and behavioral outcomes.
According to Agarwal, Gupta (2015) employees who are engaged in their jobs experience
a positive emotion which include happiness, interest and enthusiasm in their work (Schaufeli,
W.B., Salanova, M., Gonzalez-Roma, V., & Bakker, A.B. 2007), they are prone to stay back in
the organization. Work engagement is considered as the mediator in Job Characteristics and
intention to quit, thereby addressing the literature gap of limited knowledge of how Job
Characteristics is related with turnover intention. Work engagement as a mediator also shows
that employees with high job resources have positive emotions and in turn reduces intention to
quit. This finding adheres with the inferences of the broaden-and-build theory (Fredrickson,
2001) that states that positive emotions broaden routine manner of thinking and acting and result
in performing better.
Mangi, Jalbani (2013), the study investigated if work engagement play a mediating role
between emotional exhaustion, cynicism and turnover intentions among the faculty member of
higher educational institutions. In the study regression is used to prove that all the variables are
positive and significantly predict the turnover intention. The results of the study shows that work
engagement partially mediate between emotional exhaustion, cynicism and turnover intention
Burnout and Turnover intention
Burnout refers with emotional and physical exhaustion or a person who is worn out as a
result of an employees work. (Harrington et al., 2001; Huang, Chuang, & Lin, 2003) indicates
that among the various antecedents of turnover intention burnout has been found to be one of the
main antecedent by many studies
Ahmad, Shahid, Haider (2012), the study with the help of Pearson Correlation and
Regression analysis investigates the relationship between job stress, job satisfaction and turnover
intention. The results showed that job satisfaction and job stress is significantly and negatively
correlated with turnover intention. It has been evident that, employees who experience more job
stress have a higher intention to quit.
Tziner, Rabenu, Radomski, and Belkin (2014), the study examined the relationship
between perceived work stress, burnout, satisfaction at work, and turnover intentions. The results
revealed that burnout partially mediated work stress and the relationship between burnout and
turnover intention is partially mediated by work satisfaction.
Need for the Study
Education is one of the sectors which significantly affect the economic, political and
social development of the nation. It is a key to enhance country’s competitiveness in the global
economy. Therefore, it is necessary for us to build the education system such that it is easily
accessible by the entire society and provides quality education with international standards. Like
business and industry, the educational field too is discovering the need for talent so as to meet
the new quality standards demanded by educational boards and the society. The job opportunities
in Indian education sector are more than the available employees i.e. demand is more than the
supply. In Higher educational institutions, which are considered as the hub of knowledge, the
retention of intellectual capital has become a crucial issue. The Business Standard, New Delhi
dated August 13, 2014 states that by the year 2022 there will be a need for three million
educators in higher educational institutions. It is additionally noted that the migration of faculty
has left a huge gap in several educational institutions. The Union human resource development
(HRD) ministry has updated the Parliament that the 16 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)
have a faculty deficiency of 36.5 percent. The 30 National Institutes of Technology face a
challenge of an educators’ shortage in the range of 41 per cent. A lot of studies and researches
has been conducted on the issues caused by high turnover rate in the corporate world but very
little has been done on scrutinize the reasons for faculty turnover, a higher the rate of faculty
turnover in an institution higher is the recruiting, selection and training costs. Retaining talents is
not only the choice of employers but is also a very essential need of the hour as educational
institutes are already at risk running with talent crisis
Objective of the Study
Work engagement is one of the variables in turnover intention which researchers offer as
the possibility to enhance the potential to explain why individuals stay in their current jobs. The
main objective of this study is to shed knowledge on the relationship between burnout out and
turnover intention which can be mediated by work engagement is essential in light of the fact
that such information my help higher educational institutions in enforcing effective retention
practices. Empirical evidence with respect to mediating role of work engagement in relation to
turnover intention has been seen in international literature. Most of such researches has been
conducted in countries like USA, UK, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Africa. Findings in these
countries can be applied to Indian setting has not been researched. Therefore the objective of this
study is to examine if work engagement can act as a mediator to turnover intention among
educators in higher educational institutions.
Hypothesis
Proposed Model

MV
a Work Engagement b

IV: DV:
Burnout Turnover
Intention
c

Figure 1:
IV-Independent variable, Dv-Dependent variable MV,
Hypothesis
- To determine the level of work engagement and turnover intention among educators in
higher educational institutions
- To investigate the relationship between burnout , work engagement and turnover
intention
 - Work Engagement mediates the relationship between burnout and turnover intention
among educators in higher educational institutions.

Research Methodology:
Research design
A non-probability purposive and random method of sampling so as to give all individuals
within the population equal chance to be chosen. Professional educators of higher Educational
institutions in Bangalore constitute the population for the study. The present study is undertaken
to determine the relationship between work engagement, burnout and turnover intention among
educators in higher educational institutions using work engagement as a mediator. A total of 200
questionnaires were distributed among potential respondents chosen from educators from Degree
Colleges, Engineering Colleges and Business Schools among the various higher educational
institutions. In all, 192 questionnaires were returned, 14 of them were incomplete and therefore
rejected, leaving total of 178 usable questionnaires full filled giving a response rate of 89%
percentage. All the respondents were of the age between 24 to 60 years. The current study uses
Likert scales to measure the responses, since this scale is widely used in marketing and social
science research (Garland, 1991).

Measuring instruments
In this study, the survey covers theories relating to the constructs work engagement,
burnout and turnover intention. Work engagement is measured by using a 17 item scale of Work
and Well-Being Survey (UWES) by Schaufeli and Bakker (2003). Burnout: Maslach Burnout
Inventory – Educators Survey (MBI-ES) (1998)- 22 item scale. Turnover intention is measured
by the tool developed developed a 14 item scale by Roodt 2004.

Statistical Analysis in the study

For the analysis of the study an empirical study using survey method to collect both
primary and secondary data would be used. Data would be gathered using structured and
standard questionnaire as a tool for the study and to confirm themes on which the theoretical
framework is based. The generated data would be subjected to standard statistical procedures.
The statistical analysis has been conducted using SPSS software, version 22.0 (SPSS, 2013).
Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics has been used to assess the data. The Cronbach
Alpha coefficient has been used to assess the internal consistency reliability of each of the
measuring instrument.
Analysis and Interpretation:
The demographic profile of the respondents with regard to the Age, Gender, Educational
Qualification, Marital Status, Income, experience etc., of the respondents are shown in Table-I
TABLE-I
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
%
Age (in Years) 20 – 30 47.8
31 – 40 41.0
41 – 50 9.9
51 – 60 1.3
Gender Male 44.2
Female 55.8
Educational Qualification Graduate 4.5
Post Graduate 89.7
Doctorates 5.8
Marital Status Single 31.1
Married 68.9
Income (Monthly) <= 10000 5.4
10001 - 25000 36.5
25001 – 50000 46.8
Others 11.3
Experience <5 47.8
6 - 10 23.4
11 - 15 16.7
16 - 20 9.9
> 20 2.2
Presently Teaching Professional Course 34.3
B School 32.4
Degree College 33.3
Teaching Under Graduates 77.9
Post Graduates 22.1

As shown, the majority of the respondents were spread across two age group ie., between
the age group of 20 – 30 were 47.8% and between the age group 31- 40 were 41 %, Most of the
respondent 55.8% were female. Most of the respondents 89.7% were post graduates and 68.9%
of them were married. Among all the respondents a majority of 47.8% has an experience less
than 5 years, most of them 46.8% fall under the income group between 25001 – 50000 and
77.9% taught under graduates.
 Results and discussion:
1. Level of work engagement and turnover intention among educators in higher educational
institution.
To answer H1, mean scores, standard deviations (SD), skewness, kurtosis and internal
consistency reliability coefficients are compared for work engagement, burnout and turnover
intention. Table-I that the internal reliability of the factors as measured by Cronbach’s Alpha ,
are all above 0.70, which confirms internal consistency of the items in a variable. As shown in
Table II, the respondents were moderately engaged with their jobs showed mean score of Vigor
at (mean = 3.54, SD = 0.97), Dedication showed a mean score of (mean = 3.74, SD = 0.93),and
Absorption showed a mean score of of (mean = 3.42, SD = 0.91), burnout showed a mean score
of (mean = 3.72, SD = 0.79) and turnover intention showed a mean score of (mean = 3.29, SD =
0.99). The skewness and Kurtosis values value for all the constructs range between 0.67 and -
0.51, there by falling within the -1 and +1 normality range recommended for these coefficients
(Howell, 2008)
Table-II provides descriptive statistics for each variable. The present study used a 7-point
Likert scale from 1-5 where 1 = strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neither disagree nor agree, 4 =
agree, and 5 = strongly agree to measure all the theoretical constructs.

TABLE-II
Variable Mean SD Skewness Kurtosis Cronbach’s Alpha
Work Engagement
Vigor 3.54 0.97 -0.25 -0.39 0.71
Dedication 3.74 0.93 0.20 -0.82 0.82
Absorption 3.42 0.91 0.22 -0.67 0.81
Burnout 3.72 0.70 0.16 - 0.34 0.79
Turnover Intention 3.29 0.99 -0.51 -0.54 0.88
Higher score indicates higher work engagement, burnout and turnover intention

2. Relationship between Work Engagement burnout and turnover intention among educators in
higher educational institution.
The strength of the relationship between the predictor and the outcome that is can controlled
and decreased with the help of a mediator. Figure 1 above shows the model where the mediation
can be seen in relation with the independent and dependent variables. Path “a” shows the
relationship between the independent variable that is burnout and the mediator that is work
engagement. Path “b” shows the relationship between the mediator that is work engagement and
dependent variable and path “c” shows the relationship between the independent variable that is
burnout and the dependent variable that is turnover intention.

Pearson correlation is computed to address H2 and H3. Table-III shows the results from
the analyses conducted.
TABLE-III.
Correlation among variables
Turnover Intention
Work Engagement
Vigor -0.12**
Dedication -0.35**
Absorption -0.19*
Burnout 0.51**
*p<.01 **p<.001

Saks (2006) recorded that work engagement had a positive influence with antecedents
such as job satisfaction and a negative influence with turnover intention. Schaufeli and Bakker
(2004) also emphasizes the mediating effect of work engagement (participation) on turnover
intention.
In relation to RO2 and RO3, results show that all the variables were significantly related.
Burnout out is found to be significantly and higher the burnout higher is the turnover intention.
The model shown above shows that there is a significant and positive relationship between the
independent variable that is burnout and the dependent variable that is turnover intention also
there is a significant and negative relationship between the mediating variable that is work
engagement and the dependent variable that is turnover intention. As seen there is a significant
and negative relationship between work engagement and turnover intention. Higher work
engagement leads to lower turnover intention.
Conclusion
The study explored the relationship between work engagement, burnout and turnover
intention. The findings indicate that there is a significant relationship between the respondents
work engagement, burnout and turnover intention. It is seen that respondents who are highly
engaged in their job within the organization appears to have less intention to quit the institution,
which is supported by of previous studies of Halbesleben and Wheeler (2008) and Mitchell et al.,
(2001).
The results indicates that work engagement can be a stronger negative predictor of the
respondents turnover intention. The findings of this study is also strongly supported by previous
studies of Mangi and Jalbani (2013) who suggest that work engagement is a mediator to turnover
intention. It is also agreed upon by Ahmad, Shahid, Haider (2012), employees who experience
more burnout has higher intention to quit. Overall, from the findings it can be conclude that high
level of work engagement leads to decrease in turnover intention. The findings of this study have
contributed valuable knowledge on work engagement as an ideal mediator on turnover intention
among educators in higher educational institutions in Bangalore, India.

Limitations and recommendations for future research

Work engagement as a mediator on turnover intention is useful in the study of turnover
intention. It is practical to study factors that decrease turnover intention and allow organizations
to select and manage people with higher dedication and vigor in their job within the organization.
This study used structured questionnaire to gather data at one point in time, cross
sectional research design has been for drawing conclusions. The research is limited to the fact
that no provisions has been made to record the change in how the employee would behaviour and
perceptive things over a period of time. Therefore it is recommended that future research could
be done using longitudinal design to examine the influence of work engagement as a mediator
between burnout and turnover intention. This study used non- probability purposed sampling
method to record the responses, thus generalizing the findings in the context of educators in
higher educational institutions concerned. Therefore the significant association found between
the variables requires future research with larger sample among educators in higher educational
institutions.
Never the less having seen the above said limitations, Although theoretical and empirical
implications are promising and has been researched internationally, the concept of turnover
intention among educators in India is still at it introductory stages. .The findings of this study will
testify to be a milestone for the researchers, management of educational institutions and
employees to rightly understand the concepts of how to engage employees at the work place so as
to reduce turnover intention among educators in higher educational institutions in India. The
findings from this research would also increase the body of knowledge of why people stay in the
institutions and provides a platform for future studies with the help of larger samples from within
this domain.
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