The purpose of this study was to explore school principals' perceptions of job-related demands and resources and how perceived job demands and job resources are related to job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and motivation to leave the position as a school principal. A total of 340 principals participated in the study. Data were analyzed by means of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses as well as SEM analysis using the AMOS 25 program. Factor analyses revealed nine potential and moderately correlated job demands and seven potential and moderately correlated job resources. The SEM analyses revealed that only four of the potential demands and resources were significantly associated with job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, or motivation to quit. The associations between (a) job demands and job resources and (b) motivation to quit were fully mediated through job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion.

The current study explored relations between principal self-efficacy for instructional leadership, emotional exhaustion, engagement, and motivation to quit the work as a principal. Participants in the study were 340 principals in elementary school and high school in five randomly selected counties in Norway. The theoretical frameworks for the study were self-efficacy theory and theoretical perspectives on instructional leadership. A new 15-item "Norwegian self-efficacy for instructional leadership scale" consisting of five subscales was developed and tested by means of confirmatory factor analyses. Both a model defining five correlated primary factors (Model 1) and a model defining a single second order factor (Model 2) had good fit to the data. SEM analysis revealed that self-efficacy for instructional leadership was negatively related to emotional exhaustion and positively related to engagement, indicating good criterion validity of the scale. Self-efficacy was also negatively related to motivation to quit. This relation was indirect and mediated through both emotional exhaustion and engagement. The dimension of self-efficacy for instructional leadership that was most strongly associated with emotional exhaustion and engagement was self-efficacy for motivating teachers. The dimension that was most weakly related to these variables was self-efficacy for creating a positive and safe learning environment for the students.

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The purpose of this study was to explore associations between school principals’ self-efficacy for instructional leadership, their perceptions of work-related demands and resources, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and motivation to leave the principal position (quit). Four hundred and forty-seven principals in elementary school and high school participated in a survey study. Data were analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analyses and SEM analyses. Self-efficacy for instructional leadership was negatively associated with the perception of all job demands and positively associated with the perception of all job resources in the study. In the SEM analysis, the associations between (a) self-efficacy and (b) emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and motivation to quit were indirect, mediated through the perception of job demands and job resources.