The examination of the relationship between teachers' work engagement and resistance to change

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the levels of work engagement of pre-school and primary school teachers and their resistance to change. In this study, the role of positive organizational behavior approach that is considered as new in the organizational literature is revealed. It was tried to open the door for new research by giving an overview of the literature in terms of positive psychology. The study group comprises teachers working in preschools, primary schools and secondary schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the province and districts of Kastamonu. The study examined the relationship between the level of work engagement of preschool and elementary school teachers with resistance to change. In this respect, relational screening method was used in the quantitative research model. Each measurement tool was then distributed into a single form and collected by the researcher. To obtain the demographic information of participants in data collection process, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Resistance to Change Scale were used to obtain data related to dependent and independent variables with a personal information form. ANOVA, regression analyzes and t test were performed for the purposes of data collected through data collection tools. According to the results, female and male teachers resist at different levels against change while engaging at similar levels with their works. According to the teachers in the classroom, teachers who have 21 years or more of seniority, teachers who have vocational seniority between 1-10 years and 11-20 years, teachers who are graduated from high schools are more engaged with their works than teachers with bachelor's and master's degree. However, the attitudes of teachers to resist change are close to each other according to their duties, professional seniority and graduation status. Resistance to change and work engagement are significantly related in a very weak and inverse manner and are a significant predictor of the level of resistance to change.