From Job Satisfaction to Well-being: The Sequential Roles of Resilience and Meaningful Work among Indian Educators

Abstract

While teaching is a noble profession, it brings challenges that require educators to protect their well-being to contribute productively to the field. Although previous research has explored educators’ well-being, the interplay among job satisfaction, resilience, and meaningful work is scarcely studied. Our research addresses this gap by primarily examining whether resilience and meaningful work together mediate the relationship between job satisfaction and subjective well-being. We administered standardised tools to 218 Indian educators (school teachers to university academics) to measure their job satisfaction, well-being, resilience, and meaningful work. Using the Hayes Process Macro Model 6 for serial mediation, we analysed the data with SPSS (v. 26). The results indicated significant direct effects between job satisfaction, resilience, work meaning, and subjective well-being. After preparing the soft copies of the study’s questionnaires in Google Forms, they were shared with numerous academic groups with prior permission from the authorities of the concerned schools, colleges, and higher education institutions. The sample included educators from schools to universities to achieve a more comprehensive representation of Indian educators. Importantly, the indirect effect of job satisfaction on subjective well-being through resilience alone was not significant. Conversely, the indirect effect through meaningful work alone was significant. Moreover, the serial indirect effect—where job satisfaction affects resilience, which then influences meaningful work and, in turn, subjective well-being—was also significant. This demonstrates that while resilience alone does not mediate the relationship, resilience and meaningful work together provide complementary, partial mediation. These findings suggest that educational institutions can enhance educator well-being by fostering resilience and meaningful work. However, the study’s findings are limited to Indian educators, with a majority of participants from South India.