Self-efficacy for instructional leadership: relations with perceived job demands and job resources, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and motivation to quit

Abstract

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.