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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.

The current study examines if the COVID-pandemic is related to burnout among school principals. Additionally, the study analyzes if the self-efficacy of school principals plays a mediating role in the impact that the COVID-19 crisis had on their burnout level. To explore this, the authors used survey data of 981 Flemish school principals.

The findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic is related to feelings of burnout among Flemish school principals. In addition, self-efficacy mediated the relationship between the COVID-19 scale and the four core subscales of burnout: exhaustion, mental distance, emotional impairment and cognitive impairment. No mediating effect of self-efficacy was found for the secondary symptoms of burnout, psychological distress and psychosomatic complaints.

This paper emphasizes the importance of school principal's self-efficacy experiences for crisis management. Implications for school leadership training and support are discussed.

Professionalization is an important issue in many all-volunteer nonprofit organizations (e.g. recreational sports clubs). Therefore, this study relied on the competing values framework and self-determination theory to investigate whether a newly developed intervention can effectively strengthen the management processes and leadership styles in all-volunteer sports clubs.

For this purpose, a rigorous non-equivalent pre-test post-test control group design was used. The intervention involved two sessions organized in sports clubs in which internal stakeholders (e.g. board members, coaches, volunteers) were invited to discuss change initiatives aimed at enhancing the organizational processes.

An effect on both the management processes and leadership styles was found. As for the management processes, the intervention had an impact on the internal processes, with especially the development of an internal communication plan and the annual assessment of the organization's operations being promoted by the intervention. Regarding the leadership styles, the intervention had an effect on the controlling and chaotic leadership style, with leaders becoming less chaotic and controlling in situations in which (respectively) the business plan was established and the tasks were distributed within the organization.

This intervention study adopted an innovative approach to organizational intervention research by focusing on the enhancement of both the management processes and the leadership styles. Its principles are also relevant and valuable to organizations operating in other organizational contexts.

Performance appraisal is used internationally to improve employee performance, also in the educational field. However, doubts exist about the effectiveness of performance appraisal. This study aims to contribute by expanding the knowledge about important context variables of performance appraisal in secondary education. In particular, the study aims to examine the role of both characteristics of the teacher performance appraisal system and the school leader for procedural justice and perceived feedback utility by teachers.

Both interviews with school leaders and a questionnaire for teachers were used to collect data in 32 schools. Path analyses (n=298) were used to test the research model.

The results indicate that teacher participation in the teacher performance appraisal system significantly influences the perceived procedural justice by teachers, which in its turn significantly influences the perceived feedback utility. The role of the school leaders is found to be extremely important. Charismatic leadership influences both directly and indirectly (through procedural justice) the perceived feedback utility by teachers.

This study contributes to the research field of (teacher) performance appraisal by studying empirically appraisal system characteristics and leadership characteristics that effect appraisal reactions. In this regard, this study responds to the need for more empirical research to uncover the social context of performance appraisal, especially in the field of education where there is a general skepticism towards teacher appraisal and its possible positive outcomes.

The goal of this inquiry is to indicate which individual, organisational and external environment factors contribute to a better understanding of the well‐being of Flemish primary school principals.

Data from a representative sample of primary schools in Flanders (n = 46) were gathered through questionnaires (principals and teachers) and semi‐structured interviews (principals).

The quantitative and qualitative outcomes suggest that well‐being is a complex psychological phenomenon affected by a myriad of factors. The analyses indicate that general self‐efficacy and achievement orientedness are significantly correlated with several aspects of positive (i.e. job satisfaction and job enthusiasm) and negative well‐being (i.e. cynicism and personal accomplishment). With respect to school culture and structural characteristics, very weak almost negligible effects are noted. In addition, the analysis demonstrates the significant role school boards fulfill in explaining both positive and negative well‐being. Finally, the role of central government in generally is found to affect well‐being in a negative way.

The findings of this paper provide important information for policy makers concerned with the improvement of the well‐being of primary school principals.

Although prior research investigated the influence of different antecedents on well‐being, several limitations in method and conceptual framework yielded information of which the usefulness must be considered tentative. In this inquiry an attempt is made to overcome these limitations and contribute to the literature in a double way: this study adopts a concurrent mixed method approach of data collection; and well‐being is examined from a positive psychology (job enthusiasm and job satisfaction) and negative psychology approach (burnout), whereas prior research almost exclusively looked at the negative pole of well‐being.

This paper explores the emergence and shift in critical theories and problems-of-practice over the last 50 years.

Quipu is an Incan record-keeping system used across the Andes. Using multiple strings of different colors, hundreds of different knots were used to count, record historical events. The underlying idea of Quipu was that the intersection of knots and strings is a way of making memory tangible. I use the image of Quipu as a framework to organize my analytic memories and interpretation of research on school organization across spaces, people and generations.

I explore my own research and that of others who have influenced me, linking the strings of organizational theory to the knots representing changes in the educational environment that motivate research.

The paper is, in part, not only a reflective review of the literature but also a summation of the problems-of-practice that have engaged me and other scholars over a relatively long period of time.

The purpose of this paper is to measure employees’ attitude toward distributed leadership (DL) practices and investigate the challenges involved in implementing DL practices in Indian organizations.

This study is conducted within an exploratory research framework. The data were collected from 180 young middle-level executives from a diverse group of industry sectors belonging to private and multinational organization located in northern part of India. Unstructured (personal interviews and focus group interviews) and structured interview schedule (questionnaire) were administered to measure employees’ attitude and challenges of implementation.

The qualitative and quantitative analytic strategies were adopted to analyze the data. Results of exploratory factors analysis showed the existence of five underlying dimensions about the significance of DL practices, namely, self-initiatives, improved functioning, achieving organizational goals, accountability and mutual respect. Furthermore, results showed the importance of contextual factors in implementing DL practices namely horizontal structure, professionalism, work commitment and power sharing. Also, the attitudinal dimensions were found to be positively correlated with the dimensions of implementing DL practices in Indian work context.

This study strengthens the importance of measuring employees’ attitudes that can be a good predictor of implementing best practices in organizations. The major limitation of this study is of the small sample size and has been limited to young managers.

This is an original paper based on the empirical data from Indian managers. No study is conducted on the concept of distributing leadership in Indian work context on a similar or related theme.

Explores the influence of Japan’s culture on its innovative strengths and weaknesses. Indicates that Japan is good at evolutionary and process innovation but not so hot on inventing. Links this to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, comparing Japanese with US results. Attempts to link Japanese cultural attributes to rice and its consequent agricultural system and associated human relations. Devotes a section each to Japanese collectivism, power, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, and Confucianism. Finds that Japanese culture does not promote individuality or risk‐taking (unlike the US), but does excel at process technology.

Douwe Beijaard, PhD, is full professor and director of the Eindhoven School of Education, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands. His current research themes are the professional identity, quality and development of (beginning) teachers, as well as teachers’ roles in educational innovations.