Perception of Healthy Organizational Practices of Workers in the Chilean Educational Sector and Impact on Their Levels of Engagement and Burnout

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching was considered one of the most stressful occupations, one that could provoke burnout in workers. Continuing to provide educational services despite the pandemic and the new methodologies was a challenge for teachers that demonstrated their engagement in their work. This research, from the model of healthy and resilient organizations (HERO), aimed to assess the perception of healthy organizational practices (HOP) of teachers of an educational institution during the years 2020 and 2021 and the impact they have on their levels of engagement and burnout. Through the application of three instruments, 154 responses were obtained. The data were analyzed through correlations and mean comparisons. The main results show that in 2020, the correlations between HOP with engagement and burnout were positive and negative, respectively, as expected. In 2021, the perception of HOP decreased, as did teacher engagement, while burnout increased. In conclusion, the findings suggest that HOP can become a sustainable human resource management tool that promotes teachers' mental health, even in challenging times.

We Need Engaged Workers! A Structural Equation Modeling Study from the Positive Organizational Psychology in Times of COVID-19 in Chile.

The COVID-19 pandemic has substantially impacted mental health-workers at institutions are not exempt. In our research, from positive organizational psychology, specifically from the healthy and resilient organization (HERO) model, we analyzed the relationship between healthy organizational practices-engagement and workers' burnout, and evaluated the mediation role of engagement between healthy organizational practices and worker burnout levels during the COVID-19 pandemic, through structural equation models of a cross-sectional survey-based study. We collected data from a sample of 594 Chilean workers. Our results of the correlations and structural equations demonstrate the relationship between PHOs with engagement (ß = 0.51; p < 0.001) and burnout (ß = -0.44; p < 0.001), in addition to the mediating effect of engagement between HOP with burnout (ß = -0.66; p < 0.001). In conclusion, our findings suggest that healthy organizational practices promoted worker engagement and decreased worker burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to the postulates of the HERO model. In addition, we were able to visualize a similar scenario, which showed that burnout during a pandemic decreases when worker engagement mediates the relationship with HOP.