The Narrow Corridor of Heartfelt Leadership: Social and Emotional Leadership Practices in Bureaucratic School Cultures

This qualitative study examines how school administrators enact "heartfelt leadership"-a socially and emotionally attuned form of leadership-within Türkiye's bureaucratic school cultures. Using semi-structured interviews with six administrators and six teachers across primary, secondary, and high school, we employed a basic qualitative design with maximum-variation sampling. Thematic content analysis yielded four themes: (1) principals acknowledge the humanity of their teachers; (2) principals prioritize relationships and go beyond formal duties; (3) bureaucracy constrains but does not fully silence heartfelt leadership; and (4) heartfelt leadership fosters motivation, resilience, and retention. Heartfelt leadership was marked by empathy, recognition of significant moments, and proactive care that extends beyond job descriptions, cultivating trust, motivation, and commitment. Yet rigid procedures and centralized decision-making limited leaders' autonomy and responsiveness. No consistent gender differences emerged among principals, because all participating teachers were female; therefore, cross-gender comparisons among teachers were not possible. Theoretically, the study bridges emotional-intelligence and bureaucratic-organization scholarship, showing how relational leadership can be sustained in centralized systems through micro-level strategies. Empirically, it broadens global leadership discourse by examining emotional leadership in a non-Western, bureaucratic context. Practically, findings suggest embedding social and emotional competencies in leadership preparation and enabling greater discretionary authority for responsive, human-centered school leadership.