A considerable amount of evidence stresses the difficulties in attempting to fulfill the role as principal. Recent Finnish research points to similar findings. Structural changes due to extensive reforms have increased administrative duties in spite of growing pressure for quality pedagogical leadership. Many principals feel overworked and plan to leave their posts voluntarily. The Finnish success in the PISA-evaluation has obviously not encouraged the Finnish principals enough to hinder this development. This paper is part of a doctoral thesis (Sandén, 2007) and examines desire and disillusion in the professional role of a principal. The aim is to present and discuss the determinants and circumstances that increase and decrease a principal’s incentive to lead and produce desired results. The approaches adopted for understanding the work of principals are based on a constructivist framework. Leadership is perceived to be constructed and reconstructed at the intersection of three different arenas: the individual, the professional and the interactive. The individual arena and understanding of the head teacher’s motivation are scrutinized. The theoretical framework of the study is derived from a meta-analysis of work motivation (Latham & Ernst, 2006; Latham & Budworth, 2006), Bandura’s social cognitive theory and the theory of self-efficacy beliefs (1986, 1997), attribution theory and locus of control (Rotter, 1966; Weiner, 1986).

The empirical basis of the study is an open-style questionnaire distributed to head teachers (n=79) in compulsory and upper secondary Swedish-speaking schools in Finland. By a qualitative procedure of analysis and interpretation, which can be characterized as a dialectic interaction between part and whole, analysis and interpretation, pre-understanding and deeper understanding, this study aims to present and formulate a reliable construction of desire and disillusion in the context of the principal.

The findings, in short, reveal that result expectation, success and mastery experiences, job characteristics, working environment, education and continuing education, collegiality with other head teachers, perceptions of fairness, legitimacy and legality and time are important determinants for understanding a principal’s motivation. The results also indicate that motivation is individually perceived. Four types of principals are presented and characterized: the go-ahead, the loyal, the calculating and the involuntary. The contradictory relationship between increasing and decreasing determinants, time, rational and irrational aspects in leadership are all discussed in greater detail.