Mediating Effect of Principals’ Perceived Workplace Hope on the Relationship Between Workplace Savoring Beliefs and Workplace Resilience

• Published in: SAGE open Vol. 14; no. 4
• Main Authors: Yang, Ya-Hui, Chang, Shu-Hsuan, Hua, Yi-Hao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2024; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Beliefs; Educational Development; Principals; Resilience (Psychology); School Organization; School Policy; School principals; principal; workplace resilience; mediation; workplace savoring beliefs; perceived workplace hope
• ISSN: 2158-2440; 2158-2440
• DOI: 10.1177/21582440241287008

In recent years, principals have been challenged in their school operations by the low birth rate, the promotion of significant education policies, and changes in the power structure of schools in Taiwan. These problems once caused a retirement boom among principals, significantly affecting educational development. Past research on principals’ school operations has focused chiefly on external policies and related support systems, but rarely examined the psychological aspects of the principals themselves. Based on the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion, this study explored the relationship among principals’ workspace savoring beliefs, principals’ perceived workplace hope, and workplace resilience. A total of 302 principals (66 females, 236 males, with an average age of 55.6 years) from Taiwanese senior high schools completed the paper-based questionnaire. The study results indicate that both principals’ workplace savoring beliefs and workplace hope positively impacted workplace resilience and that perceived workplace hope partially mediated between workplace savoring beliefs and workplace resilience. This study makes specific recommendations for educational authorities, principals, and subsequent research directions based on the above conclusions. Plain language summary Purpose: An empirical study explored the key factors (workplace savoring beliefs and perceived workplace hope scale) that drive principals’ workplace resilience and examined the relationships between the key factors and principals’ workplace resilience. Methods: The Principals’ Workplace Savoring Beliefs Scale, Perceived Workplace Hope Scale, and Workplace Resilience Scale were developed. A total of 302 principals from Taiwanese senior high schools completed the paper-based questionnaire. Conclusions: This study confirmed the positive impact of workplace savoring beliefs on workplace resilience. Furthermore, perceived workplace hope mediated the relationship between workplace savoring beliefs and workplace resilience. Implications: This finding has important implications for assisting principals in enhancing workplace resilience when facing school operations challenges. This study revealed that principals with good workplace savoring beliefs could strengthen their resilience when encountering setbacks in school operations through the mediation effect of perceived workplace hope. Limitations: First, about background variables, the differences in this study in perceived workplace hope and workplace resilience were higher among principals with a master’s or doctoral degree than those with a bachelor’s degree. Second, regarding research variables, this study focused on savoring beliefs, perceived hope, and resilience, while positive psychology includes many other variables. Third, as for the target population, this study was conducted on principals of senior high schools. Fourth, in terms of data processing, SPSS PROCESS Model 4 was used to examine the effectiveness of this study.