“This School is Part and Parcel of Myself”: Workplace Attachment Promotes Positive Affect Among Teachers through Work Engagement

Abstract

The current paper examines the relationship between teachers’ attachment to their institution and positive affect, through work engagement. In addition, the hypothesized path model considers two predictors of workplace attachment, namely teaching experience in the current institution and the frequency of communication with colleagues in an ordinary working day. Data were gathered from 289 primary school teachers employed in Turkish public schools through convenience sampling. A structural equation modelling method was applied for testing the hypothesized path model. Findings demonstrated teachers who frequently communicated with their colleagues had a high workplace attachment. Furthermore, primary school teachers who had a stronger attachment to their institution more engaged to their work, which in turn leads to higher levels of positive affect and lower levels of negative affect. Although previous literature emphasized the importance of the workplace on employee well-being and work engagement, previous work on teachers’ attachment to their institutions and its consequences is limited. With these findings, the current paper made important theoretical and practical contributions (e.g., examining the predictors and well-being outcomes of emotional and cognitive bonding to work environments in a non-WEIRD sample) considering attachment to work environments is a less-studied topic in the place attachment literature as compared to other contexts (e.g., neighborhoods, cities).