A study of Manitoba principals' experiences of workplace mistreatment, its frequency, its severity and its impacts
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Date
2018-10
Authors
Barrett DeWiele, Corinne
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Abstract
In Canada and in many jurisdictions, the job of principals has been described as complex (Combs, Edmonson & Jackson, 2009; Duke, 1988; Pollock & Ryan, 2013). With such a task, levels of stress and job dissatisfaction could affect the ability of principals to fulfill all job requirements (Keashly, 1997; Raver & Nishii, 2010). One such stressor on a principal could be elements associated with mistreatment by other adults in the principals’ workplace network. There are no studies in the academic research to date that touch specifically on the types of general workplace mistreatment (Price Spratlen, 1995) that the principals suffer or the impacts that these incidents have on the principals. The purpose of this research was to contribute to the filling of this void by examining what twelve middle years school principals in Manitoba perceived as mistreatment from adults, the attributes of the mistreatment incidents regarding alleged perpetrators, frequency and severity of the incidents and the impacts on principals, particularly regarding well-being and job satisfaction.
This exploratory study used mixed methods inquiry (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011) focusing on uncovering both quantitative data regarding the principals’ perception of the frequency and severity of the mistreatments, as well as qualitative data regarding the ways that principals constructed understandings of mistreatment and its impact. A heuristic framework was used to catalogue the perceptions of workplace mistreatment provided by the principals using classifications drawn from the organizational behaviour literature, Namie and Namie’s (2004) Workplace Mistreatment Severity Continuum and Blase and Blase’s (2006) Levels of Aggression for Workplace Mistreatment.
Findings from this study suggested, first, that the principals participating in this study did experience incidents of general workplace mistreatment ranging from incivility to mobbing, but not physical violence. Secondly, the survey results revealed that the frequency of mistreatments was not high, but that when the incidents did occur, some were perceived as severe and stressful regardless of where they fell on the workplace mistreatment continuum heuristic. Principals suffered a range of negative impacts, some enduring, such as stress, but the negative impacts did not prevent them from expressing high levels of overall job satisfaction.
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Keywords
Principal, Workplace mistreatment, Well-being, Negative impacts, Job satisfaction
Citation
APA