Impact of Perceived Organizational Support on Innovative Work Behavior and Burnout in Teachers: Thriving at Work as the Mediator (2020)

This study explores the interaction of four major factors at the workplace, namely, perceived organizational support, burnout, thriving at work and innovative work behavior, specifically in the setting of the private high schools of Karachi. The study looks at why some instructors in the same organization succeed under trying circumstances such as those engendered by the Covid 19 situation, while others struggle and eventually succumb to burnout. Data consists of responses of 196 teachers, collected through a questionnaire on Likert scale and SPSS is used for analysis. Results show that perceived organizational support has a positive impact on innovative work behavior, whereas burnout is negatively impacts teachers. It has been demonstrated that thriving at work is a powerful mediator.


Introduction
The best way to invest in human capital for a nation's economic and social development is via education (Naeem et al., 2019).This, in essence, depends on instructors' particular abilities and efforts (Jabbar et al., 2020).Developed nations invest a significant amount of money on the professional development of educators.However, the situation in Pakistan is notably less than ideal, which ominously portends impending disaster.When the COVID19 scenario suddenly and dramatically raised its ugly head, the actual scope of the catastrophe became most apparent.There was no prior teacher preparation in this area, and the abrupt change in the teaching methods obviously portended disaster.Despite the fact that Pakistan has experienced an enormous increase in the number of private schools in recent years, particularly in metropolitan areas, not enough attention has been given to the teacher training sector (Tahira et al., 2020).There are 792, 533 teaching staff members working in 87,659 private schools, according to Pakistan Educational Statistics (2014-15).Having a professional teaching degree or other certification is appreciated by a lot of private schools but is not a requirement.According to statistics, which show that there are 206 teacher training institutes, but probably about 722,557 pupils registered in Pakistan.These students eventually, and mostly, become trained instructors who work in public institutions (Khanum et al., 2019).Additionally, studies have demonstrated a strong correlation between teacher preparation and instructors' effectiveness in delivering courses.When the world was startled by the threat of COVID-19, this disregard to the essential in the education sector was more than obvious (Rwigema, 2021).
The school organizations did their best to help their personnel despite time and technological support limitations, but many instructors felt that support was insufficient and began to question their own efficacy.On the other side, a few educators made the decision to accept the challenge and began acquiring the new technology.Without any prior instruction, they juggled using Zoom, Google Classroom, Edmodo, and Blackboard, which called for their most creative abilities (Casey et al., 2018).They eventually started to thrive in their jobs.Additionally, it helped them gain recognition from their company, boosting their confidence.It supported research showing that employees who have organizational support feel secure using their creativity and are less likely to experience burnout (Yin-Fah et al., 2010).In those days, burnout was a danger that hung over everyone's head.Burnout is a feeling of discontent with one's career that might manifest as being unhappy, nervous, confused, or tense for an extended period of time (Lubbadeh & Marketing, 2020).

Objective of the Study
The objective of this research was to investigate the times of covid December 2020, how teachers of private high schools of Karachi put into practice their innovative work behavior and some experienced burnout despite perceived organizational support and in the presence or absence of thriving.As a consequence, the motivation and leadership studies that give the empirical data on this subject may find this study to be a useful addition.
This study aimed to comprehend how relationships between perceived organizational support, innovative work behavior, and burnout as well as how various work settings influence an employee's ability to perform in an organization.Although much research has been conducted in this field yet not much study has been done considering 'thriving' as the mediating variable, and especially no research has been conducted in the educational scenario of the elitist high schools of Karachi.
The schools are identified as elitist private high schools with the help of research article, Passport to Privilege: The English medium schools in Pakistan by Rahman (2007) in which he has classified the different segments of private schools, and has also discussed in great depth their peculiar trends and characteristics.This research is going to help the administrators and other people at the leadership positions to understand the importance of teachers' perception of organizational support particularly during times of sudden changes.Switching to online teaching and playing with technology was not an easy task for many teachers.Such tasks are only possible for the teachers when they feel that their efforts are acknowledged and there is a conducive to learning environment created where they can apply their innovative work behavior and thrive in the process.

Research Questions
RQ1: Is there a relationship between perceived organizational support and innovative work behavior among private school teachers?RQ2: Is there a relationship between perceived organizational support and burnout among private school teachers?

Description of the Context
Teachers have assumed a pivotal role in the educational system of any country including Pakistan.Therefore they are called agents of change (Telephone Interview with Delores Saavedra, 1996).Even the best curricula cannot be delivered without an effective and well prepared teacher (Jabbar et al., 2020).Unfortunately, Pakistan spends less than 2% of its total GDP on education which should have been approx.more than 4% of their total GNP, in 90% of the total allocated amount goes to the payment of the salaries of the current work force.Due to the meager resources and fewer opportunities for training and development even the people sitting on leadership posts do not have a clear understanding of how important it is to provide a supportive environment to the teachers so that their thriving may help the organization to flourish (Patel et al., 2020).A supervisor is responsible to provide assistance to the workers and should act as the bridge between the workers and the top management.There is little doubt to believe that school organizations are facing an enormous challenge in the post COVID situation and, are fighting a war of their survival in which innovation is the most essential tool in the survival kit since online instruction is a novel idea for the teachers as well as the students who have never studied before through media though they are well accustomed to it yet this fresh concept is still seeking acceptance with much difficulty (Fontenelle-Tereshchuk, 2021).The hardest hit segment is the least tech-savvy teachers who have always kept themselves religiously away from technology.In this scenario, innovation has been considered a key element for success in the delivery of an ordinary dry and dull lesson.Creating an atmosphere of readiness to learn and inducing an element of interest in those ordinary, lackluster lessons is the most desired accomplishment of an effective teacher (Safety et al., 2013).
Innovative work behavior is the creation of ideas purposely and consciously to improve the routine act and augment the output.Unfortunately, with the sweeping onslaught of the pandemic the teachers did not get any time to adjust to the new normal and before they knew it, they were sitting in front of their laptops' screens and giving online lessons.Expecting any degree of innovation from them in that scenario was actually asking too much of them (Novi & Etikariena, 2022).Usually the teachers seek guidance from their supervisors and line managers in situations where they do not know what to do and how to do but due to the strict norms of school closure as a result of social distancing the teachers were deprived of any technical support that could have made their lives easier in those tough times.The logical outcome was teachers' burnout.Not every teacher had some sort of technically supportive individual available at their homes.The school organizations also had their hands tied since school buildings were locked and there was no other option to help those teachers who were stuck in the labyrinth of technology.However, there was another segment of teachers who were determined to survive the challenge and proved their mettle in the face of predicament.They chose to thrive (Muchiri et al., 2020).

Thriving at Work
The idea of flourishing at work is borrowed from the positive psychology movement, which, since its introduction at the American Psychological Association Convention some 20 years ago, has drawn considerable attention (Muleya et al., 2020).Whether or not a person feels successful at work determines how motivated they are to work.For those who want to succeed in their personal and/or professional life, flourishing is essentially a state of mind.(Porath et al., 2012).A person who is psychologically in a condition of 'vitality' and 'teach' at work is said to be thriving (Spreitzer et al., 2005).
Thus, the phrase "thriving at work" refers to both vitality and learning, in which a person enjoys both cognitive and physical growth.When an employee experiences hedonic viewpoint, they feel alive and energetic at work.On the other side, the eudemonic perspective occurs when employees believe they are growing and learning at work.They have portrayed vitality as a state of mind in which a person feels energized and on the move at their place of employment (Bensemmane et al., 2018).

Innovative Work Behavior
The term "innovative work behavior" (IWB) refers to an employee's desire to introduce and put into practice unique ideas in the workplace in order to modernize and change established procedures and attitudes.The innovation theory, which maintains that innovation encompasses more than just creativity, is primarily responsible for innovative work behavior (Mainemelis et al., 2015).Scott and Bruce (1994) have determined that creative work behavior involves several stages.De-Jong et al. (2010) in response to Scott and Bruce's (1994) dimensions of inventive work conduct, have offered a four-dimensional model of innovative work activity.These four proportions are: recognizing the opportunity, the point at which an idea is formed, and the point where action is taken.The opportunity to "champion" the concept then presents itself, and the last stage is to actually put the idea into action.The next step in the process of innovative work behavior is coming up with an idea that is put into practice by a person.(Porra & Hirschheim, 2007).The plan will be put into action after it has received enough support.Improvement, modification, and change in the prevalent attitude, product, and processes of a person or an organization are typical ways to describe implementation (Martins & Terblanche, 2003).

Perceived Organizational Support
Perceived organizational support is the perception of an employee that his/ her efforts and values are respected by the organization (Eisenberger et al., 1986).The idea of perceived organizational support first emerged from the organizational support theory.This theory contends that employees create their own perceptions of how much their employer values their efforts and is prepared to meet their needs, such as during times of illness.Employees who receive organizational support, develop a sense of duty where they feel compelled to complete tasks and assignments to the best of their abilities (Caesens et al., 2017).According to Alonso et al. (2015), this could manifest as increased devotion, commitment, and identification with the organization while also satisfying a person's need to feel connected to a wider group of people.Instead, those workers who do not get support and encouragement from their company, exhibit indicators of burnout, irregular behavior, and absenteeism, as well as a propensity to want to change jobs (Alonso et al., 2015).As a result, it may be said that perceived organizational support refers to an employee's perception that the company for which he or she works cares about his or her well-being, values their efforts, and recognizes the commitment they are making (Contreras et al., 2020).

Burnout
Burnout happens in any situation when an employee does not feel valued, yet is forced to continue working because of obligations (Demerouti et al., 2009).A mixture of various pressures can lead to burn out, which manifests as tiredness, boredom, and decreased effectiveness.Poor job engagement, inexplicable weariness, perceived inefficiency, and deteriorating physical and mental health are typical symptoms of burnout.Petulance and periods of inexplicable uneasiness may be the first signs of burnout, but as it progresses, it may lead to persistent sadness and other psycho-somatic illnesses.However, many studies believe that burnout is a type of psychological deterioration that results in declining emotional and mental health in addition to poor physical health.According to research, feeling in control of one's job fosters a sense of independence that helps one achieve professional goals and maintain their personal wellness (Young & Ensing, 1999).Employees tend to lose excitement and vigor in their job, which eventually makes them less engaged in their work and more cynical.This occurs when individuals don't feel respected and think their efforts and hard work are being ignored and undervalued.Therefore, employees who believe they have cultivated healthy social connections with their coworkers, employers.As a result of more opportunities for management to celebrate their successes at work and fewer conflicts that cannot be resolved amicably, there are fewer situations where employees feel burned out (Maslach & Leiter, 2008).

Relation of Perceived Organizational Support with Thriving at Work
Employees who believe that their employers are doing everything possible to help them are more likely to be content with their employment and are likely to be successful in the long run.Thus, it is clear that when employees feel valued and supported, the organization succeeds, and when employees think that their employer values them, they succeed at their jobs as well (Luthans et al., 2008).
Hypothesis 1. Perceived Organizational Support positively relates to Thriving at work.

Theoretical Background
For a long time, human flourishing has piqued the curiosity of social and behavioral scientists (Brown et al., 2017).The greater body of psychological research typically views flourishing as a dynamic process of adjusting to physical, psychological, or social adversity, resulting to positive results including personal growth and enhanced functioning (O'Leary et al., 1995).An alternative definition of thriving is one that organizational behavior and management researchers focus on.
According to Spreitzer et al. (2005), employees that are flourishing at work feel alive and continually learning new things, which is a desired and pleasant psychological state.Successful workers think that their present work experiences and behavior are intrinsically motivating and supportive of their own personal growth.First, because affective and cognitive aspects are intertwined, thriving is similar to other psychological experiences (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993).Additionally, according to Spreitzer et al. (2005), the eudemonic component of well-being is realized via learning, but the hedonic component is experienced through vitality, a delightful sensation (Ryan & Deci, 2001).

Relation of Perceived Organizational Support with Innovative Work Behavior
According to Redmond (2015), human decision to interconnect with others is often affected by the balance of repayment of their effort and time.As a result, an employee feels obligated to return favors with equality even when they believe their employer recognizes the work they do to help the company achieve its goals and treats their ideas and proposals with respect.

Relation of Perceived Organizational Support with Burnout
According to Zeng et al. ( 2020), the arbitrary measure of organizational support is perception.feeling of a servant about how well they are taken care of, respected and considered important by the organization.Therefore, if employees feel that they are considered important by their organization, they do not feel exhausted and burnt out.Similarly, explains that excessive job demands may create a sense of fatigue and stress among the employees which may result in burnout however, those employees who feel well supported by their employees feel cushioned against these negative impacts.
According to Suan and Nasrudin (2016), workplace stress refers to unpleasant stimuli associated to the job and a worker's physiological and psychological reactions.It also covers stressors and the results of strain.According to Dunham and Varma (1998), burnout is seen to be closely connected to job stress.According to the conservation of resources hypothesis, people become stressed when they are threatened by things like unreasonably high job demands, resource loss, or investing excessive amounts of resources for unsatisfactory returns (Hobfoll & Freedy, 1993).However, these first pressures, while stressful, do not instantly result in burnout; instead, burnout only occurs when a person consistently loses resources or feels threatened by resource loss.Prior research shown that job stress, student accomplishment, social variables, and professional development all predicted teacher burnout positively (Ju et al., 2015).

Methodology
This approach studies the relationship between variables which are measured in numbers and, apply statistical techniques (Bezzina et al., 2015).This study was conducted through deductive research approach since it was a quantitative research and hypotheses had been formulated.In this study hypotheses had been deduced, and those hypotheses were tested by applying quantitative methods such as regression and co relational analysis.

Sample Size
The sampling method used for this research was convenience sampling.The teachers of thirteen (13) branches of two (2) systems of the schools of Karachi were approached online.

Innovative Work Behavior
Thriving at work

Questionnaire
The researchers have used adapted tools for survey questionnaire with Likert scale, consisting of twenty-one close ended questions which are formulated in clear, coherent and explicit manner.Besides the demographic statistics, this research has made use of some major measures in this study.The independent variable, Perceived Organization Support (POS) is determined by the 5-items (Eisenberger et al., 2013), whose internal consistency is .85.Other dependent variables like Thriving at Work (TAW) is determined by Porath et al. (2012) scale whose internal consistency is .85, the items have shown the reliability higher than 0.70.Innovative Work Behavior is determined by the scale made by Scott and Bruce (1994).The 5-points Likert scale measures the responses from 1 = never to 5 = almost constantly, and the internal consistency is calculated to be .74.This scale calculates the four dimensions of Innovative Work Behavior: opportunity exploration, generating idea, championing and application.Burnout is determined by Burnout Assessment Tool (Kristensen et al., 2005;Schaufeli et al., 2020).It is also calculated over 5-scale Likert Scale, which assesses from 1 = Never to 5 = Always.This is a cross sectional study since a common outcome is intended to be examined at a certain moment therefore cross section design has been chosen.It is an economical and less time-consuming technique that permits data collection more easily.

Results Analysis
The results have been tested on SPSS for screening the data to assess validity and reliability.The study was conducted on 196 respondents.The research has been conducted with keeping gender, age and experience as control variable.Frequency table 1, 2, 3 and 4 display the analysis of controlled variables.Out of the total 196 respondents 80.1% (157) were female and 19.9% (39) were male.The study showed that 3.1% (6) respondents were less than 25 years of age, 28.6% (56) were between the age-brackets of 26 -35 years, 36.7% (72) were between 36 -45 years and the rest of the 31.6%(62) were above 45 years of age.
Table 6 only displays the outer loadings of 17 of the original 21 items, but it is clear that every item has a factor loading value that is higher than the industry norm of 0.7.Two scales are used to evaluate discriminate validity analysis (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).the cross loading in Table 7.The findings indicate that the discriminatory validity is accepted since the square root of the AVE of POS is bigger than the other co-relational values, TAW, and IWB, as well as greater in the rows and columns.According to the findings, POS significantly affects TAW (=0.373, t=4.350, p=0.000, r=0.564), which explains why an increase of 1 unit in POS, which is our independent variable, increases TAW by 0.564%., was responsible for an increase of 0.373 units in TAW, "t" is a measure of the dependability of the coefficient's predictive capacity and should be > 1.96, and "p" is a probability value, where "b" should be 0. Also, R 2 value is 0.131 which means that the total effect of POS on TAW is 13%.Thus, H1 is supported that POS has a positive relation between TAW.Also, hypothesis 2 had suggested that there is a relationship between perceived organizational support and innovative work behavior (IWB).The results have revealed that POS has a significant impact on IWB (β=0.031,t= 0.571, p=0.568).Thus, H2 is not supported.The results have revealed that POS has a significant impact on Burnout (β=0.017,t=0.222,p=0.824).Thus, H3 is not supported.To assess the impact of mediator i.e.TAW on the two dependent variables; IWB and BT, mediation analysis was performed.To examine the mediating effect of TAW on the relationship between POS and IWB, a mediation analysis was conducted.The total impact of POS on IWB was determined to be significant (H4: = 0.310, t= 3.547, p .001), as shown in Table 9.The effect of POS on IWB was rendered unimportant by the inclusion of the TAW (= 0.038, t= 0.683, p= 0.494).Significant results were reported for the indirect influence of POS on IWB through TAW (= 0.272, t= 4.838, p 0.001).

Details of Mediation
In light of the fact that the total impact was substantial, the indirect effect was big, and the direct influence diminished.TAW is believed to completely mediate the connection between POS and IWB.Similarly, it was determined that the overall impact of POS on BT was negligible (H5: = -0.138,t= 1.928, p= 0.054).
The effect of POW on BT became minor when the TAW, our mediator, was considered (= 0.021, t= 0.276, p= 0.782).The indirect effect of POS on BT through TAW was shown to have significant findings (= -0.159, t= 4.676, p 0.001).

Discussion
The goal of this study was to investigate how teachers of elitist private high schools of Karachi perceived organizational support, thrived at work, put into practice their innovative work behavior and experienced burnout.The results were in line with the theory and other studies in this area, but not in our situation.This study is unusual in that no other study of its kind has been done in the field of education, especially with respect to elite high school professors.However, inventive work behaviour increases noticeably when the component of flourishing is also present.Additionally, instructors who experience organizational support at work tend to thrive, which clearly displays a lower risk of burnout than in the absence of organizational support alone.According to Işık et al. (2021), if employees feel that their employer values and supports them in their professional endeavours, they are more likely to exhibit creative work behaviour.The individual's endeavour to study the issue from a completely fresh perspective is a crucial component of creative work behaviour (Farr & Ford, 1990).
The findings of this study also demonstrated a negative relationship between perceived organizational support and burnout, which is supported by other studies.Teachers who felt the organization did not care about their needs and showed some callousness, seemed to be in a burnout state, which is typified by poor job engagement, decreasing physical health, and other symptoms.and mental health, occasional fits of anger and open expressions of discontent at any modification to how duties are carried out or in official policy (Maslach & Leiter, 2008).
No research has is devoid of limitations, as such, this research also has its own share of inadequacies.Firstly, the sample was collected through convenience sampling which is a non-probability sampling technique due to the limited time and restricted mobility in the wake of COVID19 situation.Thus, these results cannot be generalized over all school teachers' population of Pakistan.Also, the sample size was too small to claim any degree of generalizability.Thirdly, the responses were received through self-administered online questionnaires.Respondents acted on their own discretion and might have not provided honest responses, which is a question mark on the reliability of the research.Fourthly, due to time constraints, a cross-sectional study was conducted which did not allow time to examine the causality of the interaction of the two or more variables.Thus, the causalities have been missed out.

Conclusion and Recommendation
This research was an attempt to investigate how well do teachers perceive organizational support and what impact does thriving and organizational support has on their ability to display innovative work behaviors.Therefore, this study aimed to highlight BURNOUT as a significant component.The condition of the existing studies in the context of Pakistan, paints an unusually bleak picture.As a consequence, this study can be a valuable complement to the motivation and leadership studies that present this topic's empirical findings.Although the magnitude of the research was limited and the sample size was also not so large that the results of this research can claim for any level of generalizability, yet keeping in view the dearth of efforts to conduct any research in this domain, it is reasonable to say that these findings might assist organizations, especially those in the educational sector, see the importance of creating policies that make their instructors feel appreciated and cared for their efforts and contributions.Since these institutions are top employers offering opulent working conditions like airconditioned classrooms, well-equipped computer labs, and opportunities for onthe-job professional development, and a sizable salary, teachers who work in elitist private schools are frequently seen as being extremely fortunate.
Since this is a research conducted in less charted waters therefore it is recommended that more research must be done in the context of High school teachers to check the causality of the variables.Secondly, it is recommended that the same research can be redone in mixed method so that the perception of organizational support can be observed satisfactorily.Thirdly, to rule out the possibility of flawed reliability this research may be done on a wider scale so that more and more respondents can record their response and a considerably generalized results can be obtained that can be used in the decision-making quarters.

Table 1
Details of Demographic Data

Table 2
Details of Gender Data

Table 7
Details of Discriminate Validity

Table 8
Path Coefficients Used by Data Analysis