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School leader turnover affects school stability, staff cohesion, and student outcomes. While stress and workload are well-documented factors, fewer studies examine school-specific conditions influencing leaders’ decisions to leave. Through qualitative interviews with former school leaders, this study identifies two key themes: fragmentation and pressure, encompassing institutional and organizational conditions, as well as operational and leadership demands. These dimensions contribute to long-term disengagement or acute challenges, ultimately leading to attrition. The study offers a conceptual model that clarifies turnover mechanisms, providing insights for policymakers and educational leaders aiming to foster leadership retention and school stability.

Background: School leaders are a cornerstone of the school system, carrying central responsibility for educational quality, organizational stability, and the overall development of schools. In Sweden, school leader turnover is unusually high compared to many other countries. Despite the importance of stable leadership, there is limited knowledge of why turnover is so extensive in the Swedish context. This dissertation therefore investigates why novice school leaders leave their positions, with the aim of providing a deeper understanding of the processes and conditions that contribute to their early departure.

Data and Methods: The dissertation is based on four sub-studies drawing on both cross-sectional and longitudinal data. Two large-scale survey studies analyze work environment factors, leadership dynamics, and turnover intentions among Swedish school leaders. A qualitative interview study explores the experiences of school leaders who have left their positions. Finally, a register-based study uses national administrative data to investigate the mobility of novice school leaders and the influence of school-level characteristics. Together, these approaches provide both breadth and depth in understanding why novice school leaders leave their positions.

Results: The findings show that turnover among novice school leaders is closely connected to the conditions of their psychosocial work environment and the prerequisites for exercising leadership. Survey analyses demonstrate that both the level of demands and the degree of support and autonomy are central in shaping intentions to leave, while individual characteristics also play a role in influencing such intentions. The interview study provides further insight by highlighting school-specific factors across institutional, organizational, operational, and leadership levels that together create fragmentation and pressure that may result in resignation. Finally, the longitudinal register study confirms that intentions to leave are strongly linked to actual departures, and that characteristics of the immediate work environment play a greater role in explaining turnover than school context factors such as student composition.

Conclusions: This dissertation shows that the high turnover of school leaders in Sweden is not primarily a question of individual failure but the result of a complex interplay of structural, organizational, and individual conditions. The findings underline that sustainable school leadership depends on creating supportive institutional frameworks and favorable workplace conditions that enable novice leaders to remain in their positions. By clarifying the processes that lead school leaders from ambition to resignation, the study advances international research on turnover and provides knowledge of direct relevance for policymakers, municipalities, and educational organizations striving to promote stability and continuity in school leadership.

Bakgrund: Skolledare har en nyckelroll i utbildningssystemet och bär ett centralt ansvar för skolans kvalitet, stabilitet och långsiktiga utveckling. I Sverige är omsättningen bland skolledare ovanligt hög jämfört med många andra länder. Trots vikten av ett stabilt ledarskap finns det begränsad kunskap om varför omsättningen är så omfattande i just den svenska kontexten. Därför undersöker denna avhandling varför nya skolledare lämnar sina tjänster, med målet att ge en djupare förståelse för de processer och villkor som bidrar till tidiga avgångar.

Data och metoder: Avhandlingen bygger på fyra delstudier som använder både tvärsnittsdata och longitudinella data. Två enkätstudier analyserar arbetsmiljö, ledarskapsdynamik och skolledares intentioner att lämna arbetet. En kvalitativ intervjustudie belyser erfarenheter hos skolledare som faktiskt har slutat. Slutligen används nationella registerdata för att undersöka nya skolledares faktiska rörlighet samt skolkontextens betydelse. Tillsammans ger dessa studier både bredd och djup i förståelsen av varför nya skolledare lämnar sina uppdrag.

Resultat: Resultaten visar att omsättningen bland nya skolledare i hög grad hänger samman med den psykosociala arbetsmiljön och förutsättningarna för att utöva ledarskap. Enkätanalyserna visar att arbetskrav, autonomi och stöd är centrala faktorer för intentionen att lämna, samtidigt som skolledarens individuella egenskaper också påverkar dessa intentioner. Intervjustudien fördjupar bilden genom att lyfta fram skolspecifika faktorer på institutionell, organisatorisk, verksamhets- och ledarskapsnivå, som tillsammans skapar splittring och press som kan mynna ut i avgång. Registerstudien bekräftar att intentioner att lämna har en stark koppling till faktisk avgång och att faktorer i den närmaste arbetsmiljön har större betydelse än exempelvis skolans elevsammansättning.

Slutsatser: Avhandlingen visar att den höga skolledaromsättningen i Sverige inte främst handlar om individuella brister, utan om ett komplext samspel mellan strukturella, organisatoriska och individuella villkor. Resultaten understryker att ett hållbart skolledarskap kräver både stödjande institutionella ramar och en god arbetsmiljö som gör det möjligt för nya skolledare att stanna kvar i sina uppdrag. Genom att synliggöra de processer som leder från ambition till avgång bidrar studien till den internationella forskningen om personalomsättning och ger kunskap av direkt relevans för beslutsfattare, kommuner och skolorganisationer som vill främja stabilitet och kontinuitet i skolledarskapet.

Purpose: This study investigated how leader characteristics, interpersonal dynamics, and situational context may predict turnover intentions among novice principals and assistant principals.

Design/methodology/approach: A quantitative survey was administered to 1,945 novice school leaders in Sweden. Linear regression analysis was conducted to identify factors contributing to turnover intentions and to compare the predictive influences between principals and assistant principals.

Findings: The results indicate that leader characteristics such as gender, emotional stability and self-efficacy, interpersonal dynamics like trust and emotional containment and situational context factors including role demands and managerial support, significantly shape turnover intentions. The overall pattern of factors influencing turnover intentions was similar for both principals and assistant principals, with some differences observed.

Practical implications: The study underscores the limitations of one-dimensional strategies, advocating for a comprehensive approach to enhancing school leader retention. Effective interventions should address individual attributes, foster trust within teams and strengthen organizational support structures.

Originality/value: This research provides fresh insights into the turnover intentions of novice school leaders, emphasizing that a combination of factors across different domains predicts turnover intentions. The findings support the development of multi-faceted, context-sensitive strategies for retaining school leaders.

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the relationship between the psycho-social working conditions of novice school leaders and their turnover intentions, focusing on potential variations across public- and private schools and school levels.

Research Methods: We invited all novice school leaders (n = 3,389) enrolled in the in-service Swedish Principal Training Program to participate in an extensive survey, with a 65% (n = 1,998) response rate. The survey investigated turnover intentions, working conditions, prerequisites, and organizational ambiguity. The collected survey data, in combination with official data, were analyzed using ANOVA's to identify differences across actors and school levels, and linear regressions to investigate factors explaining turnover intentions.

Findings: The findings revealed higher turnover intentions among public school leaders compared to private school leaders. This was attributed to differences in prerequisites and organizational ambiguity. All novice school leaders exhibited similar patterns regarding factors strongly associated with turnover intention, despite actor and school level affiliation. Specific levels of demand, autonomy, and support combined, predicted turnover intentions among novice school leaders with notable accuracy.

Implications for Research and Practice: The study has profound implications for stakeholders in the educational system striving to decrease novice school leader turnover. Providing adequate working conditions emerges as a key factor for nurturing and retaining school leaders from the novice pool, offering insights into strategies for managing leadership transition in schools.