How work stress influence turnover intention among Chinese local undergraduate university teachers: the mediating effect of job burnout and the moderating effect of self-efficacy.

Background: Turnover intention is one of the common disturbances that affect the career development and management of university teachers. With an aim to solve this thorny issue, the study examined the associations between turnover intention and work stress among local undergraduate university teachers in China. Methods: A questionnaire survey was carried out on 7,565 local university teachers. Initially, confirmatory factor analysis was employed to validate the reliability and validity of the scale. Subsequently, descriptive statistics and correlation analyses were conducted. Following this, a latent moderated structural equation (LMS) was used to explore the relationship among work stress, job burnout, self-efficacy, and turnover intention. Moreover, the bias-corrected Bootstrap method was applied to further examine the mediating effects, moderating effects, and moderated mediating effects in the model. Results: The hypothesized moderated mediation model was verified significant. Work stress directly and positively predicted job burnout and turnover intention, with job burnout serving a partial mediating role between work stress and turnover intention. Additionally, self-efficacy negatively moderated the direct impact of work stress on job burnout, as well as the mediating effect of job burnout. As the self-efficacy of university teachers increased, the direct effect of work stress on job burnout and the mediating effect of job burnout decreased. Conclusion: This study expanded the research on the antecedent variables of university teachers' turnover intention and revealed the individual contingency mechanism by which work stress affected turnover intention: the negative moderating effect of self-efficacy. Work stress induced university teachers' turnover intention, and this phenomenon was more obvious for faculties with low self-efficacy. Administrators of local undergraduate universities need to rationalize the allocation of teachers' job responsibilities and pay attention to the negative consequences of work stress in order to reduce turnover intentions. Particular attention should be paid to enhance teachers' self-efficacy. The findings of this study can provide in-depth recommendations for university faculty management and policy making, which can help shape a working atmosphere more conducive to teaching and research, thus enhancing the overall quality and competitiveness of faculty members within universities.

An empirical study on the influencing mechanism of Chinese university teachers' wellbeing.

Current studies on teachers' wellbeing are mainly on lowering stress or burnout. Few studies have noted that faculty wellbeing is related to teaching activities. Teaching engagement and teaching experience are important predictor variables of teachers' wellbeing, but the internal and external influencing mechanisms of teachers' wellbeing have not been clearly revealed. Based on the survey data of 7,408 teachers from 271 undergraduate colleges and universities across China, the internal and external influencing mechanisms of teaching engagement and teaching experience on teachers' wellbeing were investigated through multicluster structural equation modeling. The results were that teachers' wellbeing was influenced by both teaching engagement and teaching experience. Among teaching engagement, teachers' pre-class preparation and post-class communication positively influenced teaching experience, but in-class delivery negatively influenced teaching experience. Teaching experience partially mediates the relationship between engagement and wellbeing. At the level of internal influence, the more teachers identify with and feel accomplished by teaching, the more they invest time and energy in teaching; at the level of external influence, the school environment, leadership, and colleague support affect teachers' wellbeing through the teaching experience. Universities should offer good teaching hardware and software for teachers, provide adequate teaching support, especially encourage teacher-student communication after class, weaken the rigid constraints and controls on teachers' teaching in class, give teachers enough teaching autonomy, and reduce their teaching burden to inspire teachers to be more actively involved in teaching, improve their teaching experience, and thus enhance their sense of wellbeing.