Abstract
A high turnover among principals may disrupt the continuity of leadership and negatively affect teachers and, by extension, the students. The aim was to investigate to what extent various work environment factors and signs of exhaustion were associated with reported intentions to change workplace among principals working in compulsory schools. A web-based questionnaire was administered twice, in 2018 and in 2019. Part I of the study involved cross-sectional analyses of the associations 2018 (n = 984) and 2019 (n = 884) between occupational factors, signs of exhaustion, and the intention to change workplace, using Generalized Estimating Equations models. Part II involved 631 principals who participated in both surveys. The patterns of intended and actual changes of workplace across two years were described, together with associated changes of occupational factors and signs of exhaustion. Supportive management was associated with an intention to stay, while demanding role conflicts and the feeling of being squeezed between management and co-workers (buffer-function) were associated with the intention to change workplace. The principals who intended to change their workplace reported more signs of exhaustion. To increase retention among principals, systematic efforts are probably needed at the national, municipal, and local level, in order to improve their working conditions.
Highlights
The leadership of principals is of great importance for the school
Assistant principal, understaffing, and a perceived poor physical working environment were all associated with an intention to change workplace (Table 2)
For all of the demanding organizational and social work environment factors in Gothenburg Manager Stress Inventory (GMSI), high scores were statistically significantly associated with the intention to change workplace
Summary
The leadership of principals is of great importance for the school. The reports of a high turnover among principals are worrying [1,2,3,4], since it may disrupt the continuity of the leadership and negatively impact the school climate [5]. It has been observed that frequent changes of principals results in lower teacher retention, which is harmful for low-achieving schools with many inexperienced teachers [1]. Associations between principal turnover and student performance have been observed [1,2,3]. In a Swedish context, the National Agency for Education [9] and the Swedish schools-inspectorate [10] have expressed concerns that a high principal turnover may impair opportunities for students to achieve their goals. Corresponding values in the Nordic countries ranged between four and six years, and the median value was five
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