School principals’ resistance to change: a multilevel analysis of individual factors and contextual conditions

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between the attitudes of principals, municipality-specific aspects of reform implementation, and principals’ resistance to change. Design/methodology/approach The collected data are based on a multi-level structure. The levels of analysis are at the school level (school principal) and at the municipality level. Therefore, the research question posed in this study is examined using a quantitative multi-level analysis. Findings The results show that both the personal attitudes of school principals and adjustments made by the school presidency of the municipality affect the school principals’ willingness to change. Research limitations/implications The study’s focus on schools limits the ability to generalize the results to apply to other organizations. Nevertheless, schools are an important object of study for change management research because they share crucial organizational characteristics with other organizations in the public sector. Originality/value Studies that have looked at the change reactions of leaders in the public school sector have rarely examined individual and collective factors together. We focus on both, since the municipalities in many countries have a certain amount of leeway in implementing reforms, meaning that their involvement is of central importance for a successful change process.