The concept of positive psychological capital and its relationship with the level of work engagement: A research on teachers

Nowadays, positive psychological capital has become a concept that organizations prioritize. Positive psychological capital can be defined as an individual's capacity to persevere in the face of challenges, to know themselves, to identify their strengths, and to manage them. Individuals with high positive psychological capital can take responsibility and make their own decisions in any area of their lives and careers. Another important concept for organizations is the employee's dedication to their work and their perception of it as an important part of their lives. The concept of work engagement refers to a positive holistic psychological state that employees experience while focusing on and performing their work, which is meaningful, positive and satisfying. This research was conducted to examine the concept of positive psychological capital on teachers and its relationship with the level of work commitment. Within the scope of the research, teachers working in Artvin province were selected as the universe. The data were analyzed using the responses of 326 teachers. As measurement tools, the 17-item "Work Engagement Scale" developed by Luthans et al (2007) and the 24-item " Positive Psychological Capital Scale" developed by Schaufeli et al (1990) were translated into Turkish and used. Factor analysis, reliability analysis, and normality testing were performed on the data. The results of the normality analysis determined that the data were normally distributed. Based on the normality test results, independent samples t-tests and ANOVA tests were used to test the hypotheses. Correlation analysis was conducted to measure the relationship between variables, and regression analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of positive psychological capital levels on work engagement. The hypotheses that positive psychological capital level shows significant differences according to age, institution of employment, year of employment and weekly lesson hours were accepted, the hypotheses that show significant differences according to gender and educational status were partially accepted, and the hypotheses that show significant differences according to marital status and duty in the institution of employment were rejected. The hypotheses that the level of work engagement shows significant differences according to age and years of work were partially accepted, and the hypotheses that show significant differences according to gender, marital status, educational status, institution of employment, position in the institution, and weekly lesson hours were rejected. Correlation analysis revealed a significant relationship between levels of positive psychological capital and levels of work engagement. Regression analysis revealed that the sample's levels of positive psychological capital had an impact on levels of work engagement. The analysis results were compared with other studies in the literature, and recommendations were made to conclude the study.