Teacher role stress, higher order needs and work outcomes

Educational researchers have long been concerned with role stress among teachers. In education, research on the consequences of such role stress for teachers has largely concerned outcomes valued by individuals such as job satisfaction and reduced stress. Less research has focused on examining the effects of role stress on outcomes valued by the organization, such as employee commitment and employee retention. In examining the role stress-outcome relationship, research suggests the importance of taking into consideration the work orientations of individuals as possible moderators of the role stress-outcome relationship. Using a sample of elementary and secondary teachers, this study empirically examined, first whether three role stresses - role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload - are related to two individually and two organizationally valued states and second, whether teachers' higher-order need strength moderates these role stress-outcome relationships. The study found that role stresses relate to individually- and organizationally-valued outcomes among both elementary and secondary teachers.