Purpose: Early conceptual thinking about distrust and more recent neurological evidence reveals that distrust is not the same as low trust. They are distinct mental states, active in different brain regions and shaped by different experiences. We use this evidence to conceptualize teacher distrust in the school principal and to construct a set of…

Purpose: This study explored the different manifestations that school principals attribute to their sense of loneliness, with reference to their career seniority. The study posed two questions: (1) what are the various interpretations that school principals attribute to their sense of loneliness, in regard to the way in which it is manifested in…

Purpose: The research aimed to examine the effects of school climate (school violence and community engagement) and resources (staff shortages and resource shortages) on job satisfaction mediated by the workload stress of school principals, using pooled data from 47 jurisdictions around the world. Design/methodology/approach: This study employed a…

Purpose: Work-related stress is a significant occupational health issue. Stress cannot be viewed separately from the perceptual or interpretive act by the individual. Self-efficacy is a personal characteristic that explains a high proportion of variation in the performance of school principals. Design/methodology/approach: The current study…

Purpose: School leaders work in a fast-paced job that requires critical decision-making, often without the luxury of time. Additionally, problems may be new and leave school leaders feeling isolated and ill-equipped to adequately address situations. To that end, this study introduced the use of Reddit, a social media platform, to connect school…

Purpose: Studies have shown that teachers' perceptions and expectations of their working environment shape their perceived stress. The present study draws upon implicit leadership theory and builds on the job demands-control (JD-C) model to investigate whether there are differences in the implications of participative decision-making and…

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which several workplace factors are implicated in school principals' well-being. Two job resources (i.e. participatory climate and collegial climate) and two job demands (i.e. barriers to professional learning and staff shortages) were investigated, along with two well-being outcomes…

Purpose: Studies demonstrate the central role of principals in developing and sustaining teacher commitment to their school. Teachers' commitment to their school impacts teaching, learning, innovation and school climate and manifests job satisfaction. Commitment strongly relates to teacher attrition. Attrition is important in the study of school…

Purpose: The purpose of this multiyear research study is to examine leadership in K-12 schools using a positive organizational perspective to understand how to foster, support and encourage flourishing in schools. In this article, the authors describe the lived experiences of a small group of principals and vice-principals in K-12 schools…

Purpose: This article explores Jamaican secondary school principals' use of mindfulness meditation as a spiritual well-being strategy to manage their work-related stress and anxiety. Design/methodology/approach: The author used qualitative semi-structured interviews to collect the data from 12 Jamaican secondary school principals working in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to seek insights into the demands and challenges faced by school principals in Spain, especially in their dealings with local education authorities. Design/methodology/approach In all, 100 principals from public infant, primary and secondary schools in Alicante (Spain) participated in the study, which was…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present qualitative evidence on the processes and forces that shape school administrator career paths. Design/methodology/approach: An embedded case study approach is used to understand more than 100 administrator career transitions within the Delaware education system. Semi-structured interview data were…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider trust as an important relational source in schools by exploring whether trust lowers teacher burnout. The authors examine how trust relationships with different school parties such as the principal relate to distinct dimensions of teacher burnout. The authors further analyze whether school-level…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the trust-related aspect of the work of school principals. The authors' exploratory examination of the Canadian school principals' perceptions of their moral agency and trust-brokering roles described their establishing, maintaining, and recovering of trust in schools. This article is delimited to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the argument that leadership preparation programmes in the new millennium should be required to train school leaders emotionally as well as cognitively. A number of scholars have stressed that leaders are increasingly working within roles that are politically sensitive, conflicted and complex,…