Beyond Burnout: How Workplace Relationships Shape Teacher Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Teacher job satisfaction is fundamental to educational quality, organizational stability, and the sustainable development of higher education institutions. Nevertheless, teachers in Chinese private universities increasingly encounter workplace challenges, including intensive teaching workloads, demanding performance evaluations, limited career advancement opportunities, and occupational insecurity. While previous studies have extensively investigated the relationship between job burnout and job satisfaction, less attention has been paid to how culturally embedded workplace relationship dynamics influence teachers’ job attitudes. In particular, the psychological mechanisms through which differential interpersonal treatment and occupational burnout shape job satisfaction remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on organizational behaviour and social exchange perspectives, this study proposes an integrated framework to examine the effects of perceived climate of team Cha-xu (differential relationship climate) and job burnout on teachers’ job satisfaction, with affective commitment serving as a mediating mechanism. Cha-xu climate reflects differentiated interpersonal relationships within teams and is operationalized through three dimensions: mutual attachment, perceived favouring, and crony roles. Job burnout is examined through emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. By incorporating affective commitment, the study seeks to explain how teachers’ perceptions of workplace relationships and occupational experiences may influence their emotional attachment to their institutions and, consequently, their overall job satisfaction. A quantitative research design is proposed, involving a structured questionnaire survey targeting 600 full-time teachers from 23 private undergraduate colleges and universities across Guangdong Province, China. Established measurement instruments will be adapted to the context of private higher education. Data analysis will employ descriptive statistics, reliability and validity assessments, structural equation modelling, and bootstrapping procedures to examine the proposed direct relationships and indirect mediating effects. The study is expected to make three contributions. Theoretically, it extends organizational behaviour research by introducing the culturally rooted concept of Cha-xu into the examination of workplace relationship climates in higher education. It also advances understanding of affective commitment as a potential psychological mechanism linking workplace experiences with job satisfaction. Practically, the research may inform university administrators in developing fairer management practices, reducing teacher burnout, strengthening organizational commitment, and improving teacher job satisfaction in China's private higher education sector.