Should I Stay or Should I Go? Associations between Occupational Factors, Signs of Exhaustion, and the Intention to Change Workplace among Swedish Principals

A high turnover among principals may disrupt the continuity of leadership and negativelyaffect teachers and, by extension, the students. The aim was to investigate to what extent variouswork environment factors and signs of exhaustion were associated with reported intentions tochange workplace among principals working in compulsory schools. A web-based questionnaire wasadministered twice, in 2018 and in 2019. Part I of the study involved cross-sectional analyses of theassociations 2018 (n = 984) and 2019 (n = 884) between occupational factors, signs of exhaustion, andthe intention to change workplace, using Generalized Estimating Equations models. Part II involved631 principals who participated in both surveys. The patterns of intended and actual changes ofworkplace across two years were described, together with associated changes of occupational factorsand signs of exhaustion. Supportive management was associated with an intention to stay, whiledemanding 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 whointended to change their workplace reported more signs of exhaustion. To increase retention amongprincipals, systematic efforts are probably needed at the national, municipal, and local level, in orderto improve their working conditions