Perceived Positive or Negative Changes in the Work Situation: A Study of Swedish School Principals’ Intention to Leave

The aim of the study is to explore associations between perceived positive or negative changesin the work situation during the past 12 months and principals’ intentions to leave theirworkplace within the next two years. A mixed-methods approach was applied. The quantitativedata show that it was more common to report having perceived negative changes in the worksituation among principals who also expressed having had intentions to leave the workplace.The qualitative data resulted in ten categories, of which support from colleagues andmanagement, workload, staff issues, economic resources, and organizational conditions werethe most prominent categories.