School principals' family stress and their human relations at school

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The concept of family-work spill over has led to an increased interest in organizations developing family friendly strategies and policies to accommodate their employees. There has been a marked increase in the need for reducing the influence of family matters on work performance. One element to consider is that the staff in managerial positions has to motivate other staff to achieve the goals of the institution.The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between the family stress experienced by school principals in South Africa and their professional interpersonal relationships in the school domain. The literature review reveals several fundamental concepts such as educational leadership, human relations, stress and family stress. Furthermore, different dimensions of family stress are listed in the different instruments available for measurement. An empirical investigation followed the literature review. It started off with a pilot study, which was followed by a comprehensive empirical study among the school principals of the Metro Central Educational District of the Western Cape Department of Education in 2014. The empirical study revealed that the 'acute/chronic class of stressors does influence the human relationships of some school principals in the school domain.This value of this study lies in the new information it offers on the relationship between family experiences and the work performance of school principals, since no formally published study could be found that addresses the influence of family matters on human relations of school principals. However, there are numerous studies available on the spill over of work experiences to the relationships at home.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University