Eureka! Institutional Repository

The role of the principal of a school in today's era is complex and multidimensional. A role that must be at the same time administrative, instructive and educational. Within a modern global environment, the principal of the school is constantly called upon to meet new demands, coming both from the society and the state. The continuously renewed demands of the profession, add stress to the principal of the school, which stress under certain circumstances may develop into a Burnout syndrome. A syndrome that, without being by its own an illness, has been associated with a number of different illnesses that affect the worker's life. It inevitably provokes the interest of the society, of professional bodies, of the medical community, of governments, even of transnational organizations and is a topic of discussion and reflection at a global level. In the context of this reflection, many researches on the impact of Burnout syndrome on the workers have been carried out both abroad and in Greece. A significant number of these researches concern educators, but the number related to the principals of school is significantly smaller. The aim of the project is to investigate the levels of Burnout of the principals of secondary school in the prefecture of Thessaloniki. Eighty-two principals of school in the school year 2018-2019 were involved. The research has attempted to investigate to what extent the principals of school experience the Burnout syndrome in all three dimensions. That is emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. The association of the demographic characteristics of the sample and type of schools with the appearance and intensity of the syndrome was examined, as well as the possible correlation of the three dimensions of the Burnout syndrome between them. The results showed that the Burnout syndrome is real but rather of low intensity. Specifically, as regards the emotional exhaustion and further the depersonalization, they seem to be of low intensity, but the feeling of reduced personal accomplishment appears in a medium to high intensity level. While the demographics of principals of school do not seem to significantly affect the three dimensions of the Burnout syndrome, these dimensions are directly related to each other by providing reciprocal feedback. Finally, the type of school, (gymnasium, general or professional high school), affects the aspect of reduced personal accomplishment and indeed the principals of gymnasium feel more successful in their work.