Impact of Principal Leadership on Private Teacher Burnout in Indonesia

Abstract

Purpose: Burnout is a condition of psychological pressure experienced by private teachers in Indonesia. In dealing with such problems, the role of the principal as a leader is very important for organizing human resources, in this case, teachers, so that they can minimize burnout. This study aims to find out the effect of transformational and instructional leadership on private teachers facing burnout in Indonesia. Method: A quantitative descriptive-correlational research method was used in this study. The research sample comprised 560 private teachers spread across several provinces in Indonesia. The data collection instruments were the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS), and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (MBI-ES). Descriptive data processing and hypothesis testing was carried out with SPSS application version 26.0. Findings: Based on the results of hypothesis testing, it was revealed that the principal’s transformational leadership had a negative and significant effect on teachers’ burnout. The principal’s instructional leadership also had a negative and significant effect on teachers’ burnout. Furthermore, the application of these two leadership models together (simultaneously) can reduce teacher burnout. Implications for Research and Practice: We recommend that school principals both in state schools and also in private schools should carry out the transformational and instructional leadership models to boost the teacher performance and decrease the burnout. In addition, it was also felt that stress behavior, emotional exhaustion and burnout are very serious problems experienced by teachers so that further research can apply other leadership style approaches to overcome this problem.