Impact of Work Engagement on Teachers’ Workplace Well-Being: A Serial Mediation Model of Perceived Organizational Support and Psychological Empowerment

This study investigated the effect of work engagement (WE) on teachers’ workplace well-being (WWB) and the role of perceived organizational support (POS) and psychological empowerment (PE) in the underlying internal mechanisms. The participants were 2,090 Chinese teachers (valid response rate: 90.32%), with an average age of 39.42 years (SD = 8.73). To test the mediating role of POS and PE on the relationship between WE and WWB (parallel and serial), participants were asked to complete the subscales of employee well-being, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, the Psychological Empowerment Scale, and the Perceived Organizational Support Scale. The results revealed that (1) WE can positively predict WWB, (2) POS and PE mediated the relationship between WE and WWB, and (3) there were numerous indirect routes (i.e., WE→POS→PE→WWB). The results of this study help us understand the relationship between WE and WWB and have implications for improving teachers’ WWB. Plain language summary Purpose: This study investigated the effect of work engagement (WE) on teachers’ workplace well-being (WWB) and the role of perceived organizational support (POS) and psychological empowerment (PE) in the underlying internal mechanisms. Methods: The participants were 2090 Chinese teachers (valid response rate: 90.32%), with an average age of 39.42 years (SD = 8.73). To test the mediating role of POS and PE on the relationship between WE and WWB (parallel and serial), participants were asked to complete the subscales of employee well-being, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, the Psychological Empowerment Scale, and the Perceived Organizational Support Scale. Results: The results revealed that (1) WE can positively predict WWB, (2) POS and PE mediated the relationship between WE and WWB, and (3) there were numerous indirect routes (i.e., WE→POS→PE→WWB). Conclusion: The results of this study help us understand the relationship between WE and WWB and have implications for improving teachers’ WWB. Implications: The results of this study have practical implications, particularly for educators, as they highlight the significant role of WE in influencing teachers’ WWB. Limitations: Teachers’ self-reports served as the source of the data. This approach can result in recollection bias. In addition, since we did not use an experimental approach but rather a cross-sectional one, we could not identify any causal links.