The dark side of people management in the Dutch education sector
“Non-optimal support and relationships with team leaders are named as one of the four most important reasons for turnover in the first five years”
– Kennisrotonde, 2019 –
In recent years, more and more attention is being paid to strategic personnel policies in secondary education in the Netherlands. Since the introduction of the Regeling aanvullende bekostiging strategisch personeelsbeleid, begeleiding en verzuim vo, secondary schools are legally required to invest in good strategic personnel policies. However, this does raise the question what constitutes good personnel policy, and how to ensure this.
Line managers (i.e. team- and department leaders) play an increasingly important role in this, also making people management increasingly important within secondary education: as people management focuses on the implementation of strategic personnel policies by line managers, and their supportive leadership behavior towards teachers under their supervision.
The challenge of good people management
People management of often seen as something beneficial as it’s been shown to have positive effects on wellbeing and performance. However, knowing what good people management looks like, and how to implement it in a way that’s beneficial, might not be as easy as it sounds. Line managers in schools are often teachers who have been promoted based on their teaching skills or tenure. Making the switch to being a good people manager comes with its challenges.
This project focuses focuses on one specific challenge: when well-intended people management becomes too much of a good thing and has undesirable outcomes. A specific focus will be on why and when this dark side manifests itself.
Five studies
Systematic literature review
Overview
What is the empirical evidence on the dark side of people management in literature?
Survey (1)
Individual perspective
To what extent is the relationship between people management, and teacher wellbeing and performance curvilinear?
Survey (2)
Individual perspective
What role do teacher perceptions of the intention behind their team leaders’ people management play in the curvilinear relationship?
Interviews
Team perspective
What mechanisms make that people management by the same team leader becomes too much for some teachers, but not others?
Experiment
Organizational perspective
When does people management become too much of a good thing, and what organizational or contextual factors play a role in that?
Interested in participating?
The project aims to gain insight in when line managers’ people management in secondary schools leads to beneficial outcomes for teachers by looking at when people management can become too much of a good thing and lead to more undesirable outcomes. For this purpose, we collaborate closely with secondary schools, line managers and educational professionals throughout the project.
The research team can, if desired, contribute to sharing the research findings within participating schools. This can be done by participating in podcasts, giving presentations, designing infographics or, in consultation with the researchers, any other type of output desired.
For more information on how you can participate, click the button below:
The Dark Side of People Management 