Assessing Internal Communication and Teacher Burnout: An Empirical Study of School Administrators in Select Public High Schools in Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

Extant literature suggests that burnout is one of the major factors contributing to declining teacher productivity. Studies have exposed a prevalence of burnout among the teaching fraternity, with administrators recording higher levels of burnout. This research study investigated the association that exists between internal communication and teacher burnout, among public high school administrators employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in Kakamega County as the target population. The research questions were: a) What is the perceived effectiveness of the internal communication in place based on official channels used by TSC to communicate with the administrators? b) What are the administrator burnout levels in select public high schools in the county? and, c) What is the association between internal communication and teacher burnout among the select public high school administrators? The study which utilized a correlation research design, revealed that all the respondents experienced burnout. The findings further established that there was a weak negative correlation of -.231 between internal communication and corporate burnout, with a statistical significance level of 0.016. This suggests a statistically significant relationship between internal communication and burnout characterized by a weak negative correlation. The study recommends that institutions endeavour to ascertain their employees’ communication interests in order to establish their internal communication system. Similar studies should be conducted in the different Kenyan counties so as to make comparisons as well as among administrators in private and international schools in Kenya, to provide more insight into the association between internal communication and teacher burnout.