Complexity and volume: work intensification of vice-principals in Ontario

Author(s):  
Fei Wang ◽  
Katina Pollock ◽  
Cameron Hauseman
Author(s):  
Fei Wang

Job demands overburden school administrators’ personal and professional capacity and affect their performance and well-being. However, studies on principals and vice-principals’ work intensification fail to highlight how their work demands and challenges are manifested, and how work demands contribute to the changing nature of their work. This qualitative study explores in what ways job demands are manifested in school administers’ intensified work conditions and how their perceptions of job demands help them create a sense of control. The study utilizes the job demands model as a framework to help closely examine two types of job demands: job challenges; and job hindrances though principals’ accounts. The results show that job challenges tend to be transitory and are more likely to be overcome; job hindrances however tend to be more institutional and less temporary and harder to overcome. Attempting to deal with job challenges the same as dealing with job hindrances may become challenging itself and build up rather than alleviate work-related stress among school principals.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Solomon Melesse ◽  
Mulu Melesse

The purpose of this study was to assess practitioners’ perceived involvement and challenges they encountered in the process of curriculum development in Secondary schools of Amhara Sayintworeda. Mixed research design was employed to provide answer to the basic questions of this research. The sample consisted of 125 secondary school teachers, 3 school principals, 4 vice principals, and 1 supervisor. Proportional random sampling technique was used to select the sample teachers and comprehensive sampling technique was used to select the sample school principals, vice principals, and the supervisor. The data was collected through questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The collected data was analyzed using percentage, one sample t-test and thematic description. The findings indicated low practitioners’ perceived involvement in all the curriculum development phases other than curriculum implementation. Absence of financial and material incentives and practitioners’ lack of motivation were considered as the major inhibiting factors for practitioners’ involvement in the different phases of the curriculum development process. On the basis of the major findings, relevant recommendations are suggested in the paper.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sari Mansour ◽  
Dima Mohanna ◽  
Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay

Purpose This paper aims to understand the antecedents and consequences of using the smartphone and/or tablet by professional accountants for business purposes outside of regular working hours. More specifically, this paper aims to test the direct relationships between, on the one hand, work intensification and the use of smartphone and/or tablet and work-family conflict (WFC) and on the other hand, the indirect effect of the use of smartphones and/or tablet between work intensification and WFC. Design/methodology/approach This research was based on a cross-sectional design and quantitative method. The structural equation method was used to test the direct effect of work intensification on smartphone and/or tablet use and WFC. As for the mediation effect of smartphone and/or tablet use between work intensification and WFC, it was tested by the method of indirect effects based on a bootstrap analysis. The statistical treatments were carried out with the AMOS software v.24. Findings The results of the study indicate that work intensification increases the use of smartphones and/or tablets outside of working hours and that this variable increases the intensification of WFC through a process of mediation. Research limitations/implications This research does not take into account the moderating variables that can intervene in the model. For example, the duration of use of the smartphone, the origin of emails or messages (supervisors, customers and colleagues), the types of tasks performed outside working hours and the period of use (evening, weekend and holidays) could have significant effects on the different relationships tested in the model. Furthermore, we had all the positions held by the respondents (for example, chief financial officer, director, vice-president, partners, senior managers, management accountant, auditor, agents, analysts, accountants) grouped into one category and this may have an impact on results. Practical implications The results could be quite interesting for governments and organizations interested in advantage of the technology while reducing its disadvantages. In particular, it is important for accounting firms, which are big users of new technologies (e.g. Smart software and analytics). Indeed, both companies and professional accountants must clearly communicate their expectations regarding the use of technology for business purposes outside normal working hours. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the effect of work intensification and the use of smartphones and/or tablets, on WFC.


2012 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Cloutier ◽  
Élise Ledoux ◽  
Pierre-Sébastien Fournier

In a context of changing demographics and transformations to the world of work, concerns about age management are gradually turning into concerns about knowledge management. The vast experiential knowledge and diverse skills developed by workers to cope with the numerous situations encountered in the course of their work and to protect themselves against risks to their health and safety constitute part of the intangible assets vital to the sustainability of worker expertise and even the survival of the organization. Management practices play an important role in helping safeguard experiential knowledge in organizations. However, the transformations that have been taking place in recent years in response to an unstable economic climate have driven organizations to introduce a number of changes in workplaces. Three case studies, conducted in Quebec, each focused on the study of a specific occupation (film technicians, food service helpers, and homecare nurses), and based on interviews and observations made in the field, will be presented in an effort to describe the impact of some of these changes, namely precarious employment, flexible management practices and work intensification, on knowledge sharing in real work situations. The results suggest that by undermining work teams and increasing the workload of experienced workers, these changes actually hinder the knowledge sharing process. In fact, in such a context, the work teams are continually being reconfigured, which can demotivate experienced workers who constantly have to initiate new recruits despite already having a work overload. Possible avenues for research are proposed with a view to helping organizations cope with these changes in a way that supports the experiential knowledge transfer and sharing process so vital to organizational performance and the preservation of worker health.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (5) ◽  
pp. 613-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Fitzgerald ◽  
Susan McGrath-Champ ◽  
Meghan Stacey ◽  
Rachel Wilson ◽  
Mihajla Gavin

Australian public school teachers work some of the longest weekly hours among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, particularly in the state of New South Wales where average hours are officially in, or near, the statistical category of ‘very long working hours’. These reports of a high workload have occurred alongside recent policy moves that seek to devolve responsibility for schooling, augmenting teacher and school-level accountability. This article explores changes in work demands experienced by New South Wales teachers. As part of a larger project on schools as workplaces, we examine teaching professionals’ views through interviews with teacher union representatives. Consistent with a model of work intensification, workload increases were almost universally reported, primarily in relation to ‘paperwork’ requirements. However, differences in the nature of intensification were evident when data were disaggregated according to socio-educational advantage, level of schooling (primary or secondary) and location. The distinct patterns of work intensification that emerge reflect each school’s relative advantage or disadvantage within the school marketplace, influenced by broader neoliberal reforms occurring within the state and nation.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ratih Setianingrum ◽  
Guntur Guntur

The research intends to evaluate (1) the implementation and (2) the result of the implementation of civil servant teacher’s restructuring and equalizing policy at vocational high school in Yogyakarta City. This research was policy evaluation using discrepancy evaluation model by identifying the gap between performance and standard. The data was collected through interviews and documentation from several informants including The Office of Secondary Education staff, vice principals of curriculum and some civil servant teachers. The research instrument was tested by using the content validity test while the data validity was measured by triangulation and member checks. The data were analysed using the descriptive statistical analysis for analysing the quantitative data and continuous interactive analysis for analysing the qualitative data. The research results are as follows. (1) The implementation of civil servant teachers’ structuring and equity policy at vocational high schools in Yogyakarta City has been implemented properly in accordance with the implementation standards. (2) The implementation of civil servant teacher restructuring and equalizing policy successfully rearranges 15 civil servant teachers and reduces the number of teacher shortages by 7%. Nonetheless, the number of teacher shortages in certain subjects is still quite large, especially in productive subjects. The positive impacts of implementation of civil servant teachers’ restructuring and equalizing policy are (a) teachers are motivated to increase career paths; (b) teachers get new teaching experience and (c) teacher get new relationships. Meanwhile, the negative impact is that the teachers are having difficulty in managing teaching time which causes them not focus on teaching.


Author(s):  
Phuong huyen Nguyen

Abstract: This article presents a study on management and leadership skills of education managers (principals, vice principals) of high schools in Vietnam in the current time. By clarifying theories of skills and leadership skills, alongside with empricial study to explore the performance of these skills of the principals and vice principals from high schools. Research results have made specific contributions to the development of training programs for managers to contribute to the overall renovation of basic education and training to meet the needs of society.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 230-234
Author(s):  
Oksana Yurievna Brazhnik ◽  
Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Batrachenko

This paper describes features of students research activities organization. The authors consider possibilities of research use while studying the courses of the variable part of the educational program. This paper focuses on the role of industrial practice in the implementation of research activities. The approximate content of practices programs, as well as the typology of tasks aimed at research work intensification is given. The authors emphasize the role of research activities for general professional and professional competencies development. The paper also considers peculiarities of estimation and ways of scientific-research work optimization while studying for the Masters degree. The conducted studies have shown that the assessment of competencies development can be carried out on various indicators, the following indicators are of fundamental importance: practical nature of scientific and innovative activity (participation in fundamental landscape and geographical research, modernization and creation of landscape programs of general scientific and applied importance), originality of the idea and creative approach, use of the latest technologies of landscape planning and design.


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