A Meaningful Boost - Effects of Teachers’ Sense of Meaning at Work on Their Engagement, Burnout, and Stress

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam

A Meaningful Boost examines how teachers’ enhanced sense of meaning at work (SOM) influences burnout and engagement. Study 1 randomly assigned 41 teachers from two Arab schools to a meaning-induction intervention for 2 weeks or a control, showing lower burnout and higher engagement. Study 2 used daily surveys from 60 Arab and Jewish teachers over 12 workdays, finding SOM predicted next-day engagement and slightly increased stress. Findings position SOM as a resource that can be deliberately strengthened.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Background and Rationale

Teachers’ burnout and work engagement

Job Demands-Resources Framework

Meaning at Work as a Psychological Resource

Definition and prior research

Gaps in experimental and longitudinal evidence

Study Design and Findings

Study 1: Meaning induction intervention

Study 2: Daily surveys and modeling

Conclusions and Implications

AERA Open January-December 2022, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 1–14 DOI: 10. 1177/23328584221079857 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© The Author(s) 2022. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ero) A Meaningful Boost: Effects of Teachers’ Sense of Meaning at Work on Their Engagement, Burnout, and Stress Shiri Lavy The University of Haifa The two studies presented here examine the effects of teachers’ enhanced sense of meaning at work (SOM) on their burnout and engagement. In the first study, 41 teachers in two Arab schools were randomly assigned to a meaning-induction group—in which they were prompted daily to acknowledge meaningful incidents at work for 2 weeks or to a control group. Qualitative analyses focused on teachers’ daily experiences of meaningful incidents, reflecting their contribution to others. In addition, one-way repeated measures analyses of variance indicated that teachers that acknowledged these incidents reported decreased burnout and increased engagement. In Study 2, the sample comprised 60 Arab and Jewish teachers who completed daily surveys for 12 workdays. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that teachers’daily SOM was associated with increased engagement on the following day and somewhat increased stress. Thus, the studies highlight teachers’SOM as aresource that contributes to engagement and can be enhanced intentionally. Keywords: sense of meaning at work, burnout, engagement, teachers, daily survey Teacher burnout, reflecting physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion (Pines & Aronson, 1988), has been widely studied in the past few decades (Ghanizadeh & Jahedizadeh, 2015) . Research has consistently shown that teachers suffer from high burnout rates, similar to or greater than those in other social professions (Hakanen et al., 2006; S. Johnson et al., 2005; Schaufeli & Buunk, 2003) . Furthermore, researchers have found that one of the variables shown to be consistently negatively associated with burnout was work engagement—a state of vigor, dedication, and absorption (Halbesleben, 2010; Schaufeli et al., 2006) . Teacher work engagement is viewed as a fulfilling, positive, work-related experience and state of mind (Bakker & Bal, 2010; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004). It has been positively associated with good health, positive work affect (Sonnentag, 2003), and better teacher performance (Bakker & Bal, 2010) . Building on contemporary literature, in the present research, I propose that teachers’ sense of meaning at work can serve as a potential psychological resource that may mitigate their job burnout and enhance their work engagement. This proposition is rooted in the job–demands– resources framework, which focuses on job demands and resources’ effects on employees’ burnout and engagement (e.g., Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) . In the framework, job demands are defined as elements of the job that can be costly, physically or psychologically (e.g., work pressure, role conflict, or ambiguity). Job resources are aspects of the job that can help deal with job demands and promote achievement and growth (e.g., autonomy, organizational, and supervisor support) (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Cao et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2021) . Job demands typically increase burnout, while job resources mitigate this effect and increase engagement (Lesener et al., 2019). These effects were validated in numerous cross-sectional and longitudinal studies (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017; Crawford et al., 2010; Lesener et al., 2019) . The present study builds on this literature and focuses on a sense of meaning at work as a psychological resource. A sense of meaning at work reflects employees’ feeling that their work is significant and purposeful and contributes to others or the greater good (e.g., Martela & Pessi, 2018; Steger et al., 2012) . It has been previously suggested as a work resource

FAQs

What is the main focus of this article?

The article examines how teachers’ sense of meaning at work (SOM) affects burnout, stress, and work engagement.

How was Study 1 conducted and what did it find?

Study 1 involved 41 teachers randomly assigned to a meaning-induction group or control for 2 weeks. Acknowledging meaningful incidents was associated with decreased burnout and increased engagement.

What did Study 2 show about meaning at work over time?

Study 2 analyzed daily survey data from 60 Arab and Jewish teachers across 12 workdays. Higher daily SOM predicted greater next-day engagement and somewhat increased stress.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Adam