Date of Award
8-1-1987
Document Type
Dissertation - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Center for the Advancement of Education
Abstract
Societal factors and the internal pressures which developed in response to them converged in the 1980's to affect Evergreen Valley College faculty morale. Burnout has been thought to be a major source of low faculty morale. The human services professions are particularly vulnerable to burnout and for community colleges the major area of concern is its effect on the quality of teaching. It was the purpose of this study to assess the level of faculty burnout to determine the necessity for personal and organizational interventions to reduce it. The Maslach Burnout Inventory was administered to all full-time faculty. The response rate was 76%. The results indicated that there is significant burnout. One-fifth or more of the faculty respondents were experiencing some phase of burnout. Seventeen and one-half per cent of the scores indicated the respondents were experiencing early signs of burnout and twenty-one and one-quarter per cent indicated that they are in the advanced stage. Two-tailed t-tests with 8 degrees of freedom at the .05 significance level to determine cluster differences indicated that Roble cluster has significantly more incidences of early and advanced cases of burnout than does Acacia cluster. As a result of this study, it is recommended that administrative attention be given to organizational and personal interventions to reduce and prevent the further spread of the burnout problem and that the Faculty Senate support the administration in their efforts.