No time to talk! Teachers’ perceptions of organizational communication: Context and climate

Abstract

Teachers’ perceptions of organizational communication were assessed using a tailored questionnaire, sampling 401 primary and lower secondary school teachers from two municipalities in Sweden. Overall, the teachers were satisfied with the workplace communication climate, the communication structure, and collegial communication; however, a lack of time for communication was reported. Using a job demands–resource framework and hierarchical linear regression, the organizational communication variables were shown to predict job satisfaction even when controlling for relevant work environment indicators. In total, the model predicted 49.2% of the variance in job satisfaction. It is argued that school leaders should focus primarily both on providing opportunities for collegial interactions and working actively to improve the communication climate in schools.