Stressors and Stress Management Mechanism Among First Year Principals - Essay Example

Stressors and Stress Management Mechanisms among First-Year School Principals Prospectus Ernestine Young of South Carolina Introduction School principal ship is increasingly becoming more important and challenging. The principals have to large learning institutions with high population of students. They have to manage the infrastructure, development projects, maintain high levels of discipline, and at the same time, deliver exemplary academic results at these times of rising academic standards.

They have to meet various needs of stakeholders such as parents, school management boards, teachers, students, education departments, society, as well as political interference. They are the school’s mentors, discipline models, managers, pace setters and overall overseers of all activities of the school. Therefore, they need to be adequately prepared intellectually, physically, and psychologically for these tasks. When principals are mandated to run a new school, these challenges are exemplified by the fact that they are still new to the work environment.

Meeting all the above obligation in a new school is indeed challenging particularly in the first year when they have not adapted to the new work environment. Assisting them adapt swiftly and smoothly into the new school environment will greatly reduce the stress levels and therefore enable them expedite their duties as principals in an efficient and effective way. Once they have a good start, then it becomes possible to run the institutions effectively and efficiently thereby meeting the rising demands of higher academic standards.

This research will therefore investigate the following:1. What are the major stress factors that first year principals experience?2. What are the possible ways in which various principles address these causes of stress?3. What are some of the suggested ways to enable future principles to handle similar challenges in a more efficient way?Statement of the ProblemFirst year principals face many challenges due to the demands of a new institutional environment. The transition period to the new work environment predisposes the principals to new and unique set of stressors such as high levels of expectation on performance, new set of institutional values and traditions, uncooperative teachers, dealing with failed school performance especially when transfer was made to resuscitate the school, among others.

Lack of adequate preparedness, support and empowerment causes stress and in extreme cases, burnout. No matter the cause of transition from one school to another, challenges are always present. This calls for an investigation into the problem of transition of principal ship with the aim of coming up with a new set of more efficient coping mechanisms. Purpose of the StudyBeing new in a school set up presents a set of stressors that are otherwise not present when the principals have worked on the school for quite some time.

The new work environment has different cultural, economic, social, and professional values, which pose a challenge to new principal ship as they try to adapt to the new environment. All school stakeholders have very high expectations on the new principal. In the endeavor of adapting to the new environment and meeting the expectations, principals’ end up being stressed and sometimes experience burnt out. Performance primarily depends on school leadership and this makes it imperative to evaluate and investigate any issue that might affect efficiency of principal ship as they settle down in their positions in new schools.

Therefore, this research comes in handy in evaluating stressors among first year principals and their assistants coping mechanisms and therefore chart a way forward on better ways to equip them in preparation of the challenges of being principals in a new environment. Significance of the StudyBy coming up with more efficient coping mechanisms, this research will have made a great contribution to school leadership. Particularly, the research results will be of primary importance to institutional management departments that seek to empower new school principals.

The research will also be of utmost benefit to the first year principals as they prepare to handle the challenges of their new positions. This will in turn lead to effective and efficient principal ship.