Organisational climate as a social-organisational context for teacher burnout: the mediating role of attitudes towards the teaching profession.

Introduction: Teacher burnout is an important occupational well-being concern that may reflect school-level organisational conditions and teachers' profession-specific psychological evaluations. This study examined the direct and indirect associations among organisational climate, attitudes towards the teaching profession, and burnout among 424 lower-secondary and high-school teachers in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design was employed. Data were collected using self-report measures and analysed through partial least squares structural equation modelling while controlling for age, educational qualification, tenure at the current school, and total teaching experience. Results: A more positive perception of organisational climate was associated with more favourable attitudes towards the teaching profession and lower burnout. More favourable professional attitudes were also associated with lower burnout and partially accounted for the association between organisational climate and burnout. The structural model explained 25.2% of the variance in attitudes towards the teaching profession and 41.0% of the variance in burnout. The statistically significant direct and indirect associations supported a complementary partial mediation pattern, indicating that professional attitudes represented one explanatory pathway rather than a complete explanation of the relationship between organisational climate and burnout. The model also demonstrated satisfactory out-of-sample predictive performance. When background and career-related covariates were included, the principal associations remained statistically significant. Discussion: The generally small effect sizes of the covariates indicated that teacher well-being should be considered alongside the social and organisational conditions of schools rather than primarily through demographic characteristics. The findings support a social-psychological framework in which organisational conditions, professional meaning, and occupational well-being are considered jointly. School-level practices intended to support teachers may therefore prioritise supportive leadership, mutual trust, collegial collaboration, teacher participation in decision-making, professional recognition, and working conditions that reinforce the perceived meaning and value of teaching.