Novice principals’ on-the-job sensemaking: the visibility imperative and emotional labor

Based on a longitudinal study of novice school principals’ on-the-job socialization in a large, urban school district in the United States Midwest, we find that novice principals’ engagement in the visibility imperative and the emotional labor therein is tied to simultaneous demands of multiple stakeholders and interdependencies among the instructional, managerial, and political roles that define the principalship. Using a sensemaking theoretical framework, we examine principals’ on-the-job socialization as they learn their new positions. We use interview and survey data from two cohorts of new school principals over their first few years on the job. We develop two interrelated assertions. First, prior to the start of their first school year on the job, novices’ understanding of their new occupation includes the visibility imperative. Soon after, novice principals’ sensemaking about their role centers increasingly on the visibility imperative. Novices come to understand the instrumental value of the visibility imperative, though at times they resist these structural demands. Second, principals come to see emotional labor as a core component of their work. We argue that the visibility imperative is an important source of emotional labor. We document costs associated with the challenges of managing the visibility imperative and emotional labor.