Essay Example. Impacts of Principals' Leadership Style on Teacher Burnout

Bermejo-Toro, L., Prieto-Ursúa, M., & Hernández, V. (2016). Towards a teacher's model well-being: Personal and job resources involved in teacher burnout and engagement. Educational Psychology, 36(3), 481-501. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2015.1005006

The authors researched the well-being of teachers and the relationship that exists between teachers and their leaders. The research involved 230 teachers from 25 elementary institutions and another set of 230 teachers from secondary schools based in California. According to the authors’ report, there are some essential resources that are required by teachers to optimize productivity. They include autonomy and regular feedback. In most cases, the three requirements are not made available to the teachers resulting in lack of motivation and burnout. Autonomy involves teachers’ freedom of expression. The school principals should trust their teachers to motivate them and create transparency within the learning institution. Principals that use a democratic leadership style tend to provide freedom to their teachers. However, those who use autocratic tend to deny teachers freedom of shared decision-making, leading to teacher burnout. Also, giving feedback helps teachers figure out areas that need improvement to increase their performance. According to the study participants, the majority reported having had an appraisal assessment once a year and never got their results. Also, some reported being reprimanded for failure to achieve the set goals, yet they never got the assessment feedback. Principals who use a servant leadership style encourages teamwork and personal growth. Thus, providing feedback is one of their priority that helps to retain teachers and prevent burnout.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Burkhauser, S. (2017). How much do school principals matter when it comes to teacher working conditions? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 39(1), 126-145. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0162373716668028

The author is a school administrator in the US and suggests that the school environment is essential to teachers' well-being. Burkhauser, argues that based on her experience, teachers tend to be more active in institutions where they can meet their personal goals and those of the school. If the school working environment does not meet their needs, they will likely leave to work in other stations. Similarly, the author suggests that the school principal's productive school climate can only be created depending on the governing styles. If the leader uses the autocratic ruling style, tutors may not be in opposition to speak up regarding their issues that may affect the school productivity. Also, the hierarchal governing system tends to create anxiety and a poor working climate leading to burnout and turnover of teachers. In her study, she also used panel data designed for five consecutive years concerning the school working environment. The data indicated that the type of leadership style used by the leaders to determine the health and retention of teachers in various schools.

Cansoy, R. (2019). The Relationship between School Principals' Leadership Behaviors and Teachers' Job Satisfaction: A Systematic Review. International Education Studies, 12(1), 37-52. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v12n1p37

Cansoy has provided a systemic review of the relationship between school leaders' leadership styles and the tutor’s burnout. The systemic review is based on thirty studies in different forms of the database- they include ERIC, WOS, ULAKBIM, and SCOPUS. These databases are electronic and are managed by different domains. To access information stored in the database, one has to be authorized by the domain. The four databases were used in the study. They mostly concentrated on the principals' behavior and their effect on teachers' performances. According to the author, the tutor's job satisfaction was analyzed based on the principals' interaction with teachers, ethical leadership, task-oriented governance, and transformation management. Carson concluded that transformation leadership had a significant influence on teachers' performance. The style resulted in a more fulfilling job and was mostly used to determine job satisfaction. Also, servant, as well as ethical behaviors, contributed to a more satisfying career. However, interaction behaviors could be negative sometimes and resulted in teacher burnout.

Jones, D., & Watson, S. B. (2017). The relationship between administrative leadership behaviors and teacher retention in Christian schools. Journal of Research on Christian Education, 26(1), 44-55. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1080/10656219.2017.1282903

Deana Jones is a former class teacher and an expert in school improvement in private and public institutions. She also served as a school manager in several schools in the US. Thus, she knows a lot about the impact of leaders' conduct on tutors' job satisfaction. On the other hand, Scott Watson is a Ph. D. holder in education and served asan administrator, science teacher, and lecturer at Liberty University. In their study, they purposed on finding out the relationship between principals’ leadership and the retention of teachers in US schools. Their sample size consisted of 120 teachers from the American Association of Christian Schools (AACS). The authors utilized the Pearson correlation to determine if the school leaders' behavior was related to tutoring burnout in various institutions. The study analysis indicated that principals who encouraged teamwork and supported teacher's growth retained more teachers. Some of the teachers also reported that they preferred to work in schools with freedom of expression, which is democratic leadership. Therefore, the principals ruling behavior determined the rate of teacher retention and burnout.

Torres, D. G. (2019). Distributed leadership, professional collaboration, and teachers' job satisfaction in US schools. Teaching and Teacher Education, 79, 111-123. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.12.001

The authors have used hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) to research the relationship between teachers’ job contentment, teamwork, and distributed leadership. According to the authors, the teachers involved in the study reported that collaboration among workers resulted in a more fulfilling school climate. Teachers could share different strategies in teaching and organized on how to improve learners' performance. Also, the teachers reported that collaboration helped in social interaction and personal growth. In essence, they preferred principals that incorporated servant leadership in schools.

Similarly, utilizing different leadership styles in schools helped to improve school productivity. For instance, teachers who taught in schools with both democratic and servant leaderships reported being satisfied with their job performances. Democratic leadership involves shared decision-making. Thus, if teachers got challenges in any area, they can easily communicate the matter to the principal without following any protocol. However, in schools that follow a protocol, some teachers may fear talking about their issues leading to burnout. Thus, the principals' leadership style may result in burnout.

Summary

Teacher burnout is caused by poor working conditions in schools resulting in stress, apathy, lack of accomplishment, and depression. Poor working conditions mostly cause teacher turnout as a result of ineffective leadership styles. The most effective leadership style that is likely to create a comfortable working environment for the tutors is democratic leadership. It involves teamwork and shared decision-making. In essence, teachers have the freedom to expressing their pressing issues and foster discussion among the staff to figure out an effective solution. In such an environment, teachers cannot suffer from burnout since there is an active channel of sharing their concerns without following any hierarchical system. Also, teachers are given the right to report any rule that undermines their well-being.

Schools that use autocratic leadership styles are likely to have several cases of tutor burnout. The leadership style involves a hierarchical system through which issues and opinions by tutors must follow. The school members are ranked depending on their job group. Therefore, the school system divides teachers into superior and inferior teachers. Sometimes, the ranking of workers may result in demoralization, which may result in depression. Some top workers tend to demean subordinate workers, which results in teacher burnout, notably when their issues are not solved.

Similarly, the interactional leadership style has proved to result in detrimental conduct, which may ruin the relationship between the principal and the teachers. In most cases, teachers may get used to their leaders and forget to maintain boundaries. If the leaders reprimand them for their behavior, they may feel demoralized and get depressed. Therefore, maintaining a professional relationship with workers can help principals to maintain a conducive working environment. Thus, the school principal's type of leadership style determines the school's working conditions and the well-being of the tutors.