Empowering Ta’awun (Mutual Cooperation) among Private School Teachers in Sustaining Sejahtera Occupational Safety and Health Environment

Abstract

Empowering employees at the workplace is powerful in valuing and positioning employees in organizations. Empowerment enables employees to optimize potential. Sejahtera occupational safety and health environment are essential for schools. Sejahtera denotes peace, balanced, and harmony. The violation of sejahtera occupational safety and health environment leads to job stress, job dissatisfaction, lack of co-worker support, and inadequate supervisory support. This situation contributed to severe work-life imbalance, mental health illness, and physical unwell among school teachers. The non-sejahtera situation has also led to turnover among tenured private school teachers. Ta’awun (mutual cooperation) among school administrators and teachers would be able to sustain sejahtera occupational safety and health environment. A sejahtera environment will reduce turnover among experienced teachers. This study explores the influence of ta’awun (mutual cooperation) among school administrators and teachers in creating sejahtera health and safety environment. It used a personal interview method with private Islamic school teachers. The feedback from the informants emphasizes that ta’awun (mutual cooperation) infused with spiritual value unites the teachers and the administrators with ukhuwwah (good bonding). The informants said that ta’awun with ukhuwwah will reduce job stress and increase the sharing of excessive workload. The informants hoped that their workload would be reduced if their schools provide teaching assistants to further enhance ta’awun with ukhuwwah.