School Principals: Their Adult Ego Development Stage, Their Sensemaking Capabilities, and How Others Experience Them

• In Event: 44.063 - Organizational Theory: Changes and Challenges

Abstract

School principals’ interpretation of the context for their work has significant implications for their practice and for educational organisational theory. Principals’ sense-making capability can change over time, as in all adults. It is modelled in adult ego development (AED) theory which describes eight distinct stages. The research reported here assessed the AED stage of school principals in England using the Washington University Sentence Completion Test and using critical incident technique analysed their sense-making capabilities and how others experience them. The preliminary findings indicate substantive differences between those in different stages of AED in: their awareness of and sensitivity to organisational complexity; how they interpret the role of others in significant events/incidents; and how they were experienced by others.

Authors

• Sam Carr, University of Bath

• Neil Gilbride, University of Gloucestershire

• Christopher R. James, University of Bath