An analysis of the effects of mediative role of positive psychological capital on the relationship between ethical leadership perceptions and work engagement of teachers'

The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of positive pscyhological capital and ethical leadership perceptions of elementary, middle, and high school teachers on work engagement and to understand the mediative role of positive psychological capital in this relationship. Furthermore, examining the teachers' perceptions on the effects of positive psychological capital and ethical leadership perceptions on work engagement is also aimed at. In this study, a mixed-methods research approact was employed with in a sequential exploratory design model approach. The sample size for the quantitative stream of the study consisted of 982 elementary, middle, and high school teachers in Sahinbey and Sehitkamil sub provinces of the Greater Gaziantep province, during the 2015-2016 academic year. The "Psychological Capital Scale" developed by Luthans et al. (2007), "Ethical Leadership Perception Scale" developed by Yilmaz (2005), and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale developed by Schaufeli et al. (2002) were in employed in data collection. The qualitative data of this study were collected from 24 teachers who work in the same schools (where quantitative data were collected) by using semi-structured interview protocol, developed by the researcher. A structural equation model, regression, correlation and descriptive analyses were used for the quantitative data analysis while content analysis was carried out for the qualitative data portion The findings of the study revealed a positive and significant relationship between positive pscyhological capital and ethical leadership perceptions, and work engagement. It was shown that positive pscyhological capital and ethical leadership perceptions the teachers seemed to be an important predictor of work engagement. Additionally, it was also found that the positive psychological capital has a partial mediative role in the relationship between ethical leadership perceptions and work engagement. The qualitative analysis confirmed the positive impact of teachers' positive psychological capital on reaching goals, finding different solutions for the problems they encountered, and achieving the expected performance. Based on the partitipant teachers' perceptions, leaders equipped with ethical leadership characteristics seemed to have impacted the work environment positively, and the ethical behaviors of leaders seemed to have to impacted their work engagement. Based on the results of this study, some recommendations for researchers and practitioners were given. Key Words: Positive Psychological Capital, Ethical Leadership, Work Engagement