What Drives the Perception of School Principals as Professional Managers in Small European Countries? The Case of Croatia/Što oblikuje percepciju školskih ravnatelja kao profesionalnih menadžera u malim europskim državama? Slučaj Hrvatske

Abstract

In this study, the authors discuss the educational and social factors that contribute to the perception of school principals as an independent managerial profession. Empirical results are based on a household survey, nationally representative of the Republic of Croatia as a small European country involved in a comprehensive educational reform. The empirical results indicate that trust in individual social actors relevant for education and the public perception of school effectiveness can serve as predictors of the public assessment of principalship as a profession. Potential implications for further research and policy development in small European countries are suggested. The proposed policy interventions emphasize institutional capacity building and an attempt to achieve a positive feedback loop by strengthening mutual links between the development of local resources and the communication of positive local narratives.

Modeling Conflicts at Work: The Case of Elementary School Employees in Croatia

“…In a changeable environment, schools face new challenges (Miletić 2020): decreasing birthrates and emigration, which lead to fewer pupils and an increase in job insecurity; increasing costs, increasing competition and requirements for maintaining an image, increasing requirements for the creation of a stimulating school environment, etc. ; and expected school reforms, as well as the ongoing initiative of school principals' professionalization, creates even more pressure on the need for employee empowerment (Alfirević et al 2016(Alfirević et al , 2018. Conflict management in the organization, emotion control, and providing emotional support are considered indispensable in empowering employees to face new challenges.…”

“…However, educational institutions are continually facing challenges: decreasing birthrates and emigration, which lead to fewer pupils and an increase in job insecurity; increasing costs, increasing competition and requirements for maintaining an image; increasing requirements for the creation of a stimulating school environment, etc. (Miletić 2020); and school reforms (Alfirević et al 2016(Alfirević et al , 2018. Given the educational institutions' purpose combined with challenges and requirements, school principals must manage a variety of conflicting demands.…”

“…Given the educational institutions' purpose combined with challenges and requirements, school principals must manage a variety of conflicting demands. The requirement for the professionalization of school principals was recognized only recently but remains to be conceptualized and applied within the reform of school management (Alfirević et al 2016(Alfirević et al , 2018.…”

Working Conditions Influencing Junior School Principalship as a Satisfying Profession: A Cross-Country Comparative Study

“…A cross-country comparative study contributes to deeper understanding of principals' job satisfaction. Although the strong call for principal professionalization, particularly for the benefits of school effectiveness and school improvement, in many countries (Alfirevic et al, 2018), whether and to what extent principalship is a well-defined profession is still contentious (Karataş, 2019). This disagreement is in part attributable to the principals' different distribution of time at work across countries.…”

A Bibliometric Analysis of Public Business School Scientific Productivity and Impact in South-East Europe (2017-2021)

“…On the other hand, the public higher education (HE) in the region of South East Europe (SEE) finds itself in a different context, which is often described in terms of the clientelistic and politicized public sector, serving the interests of the self-propelling political elites (Šimić Banović 2019;Pavlović 2022). This might drive the regional public business schools to continuously legitimize their role and activities toward the stakeholders, as previously empirically shown for the cases of primary and secondary education levels in Croatia (Vican, Alfirević, and Pavičić 2017;Alfirević, Vican, and Pavičić 2018). The described need for HE legitimization can often be found in a different context(s), where economic and social circumstances lead to high levels of youth unemployment (Simmons and Smith 2016), thus hinting at low performance and social contribution from higher education institutions (HEIs).…”