Research conducted by UK’s Institute of Public Policy Research (West & Patterson, 1999, p. 22), based on an 8-year long study of 100 companies, concluded that "an employee's satisfaction with their work and a positive view of the organisation, combined with relatively extensive and sophisticated peoplemanagement practices, are the most important predictors of the future productivity of companies." The people-management practices referred to here include ones that concentrate on enabling staff to actually enjoy their work rather than feel oppressed by it; ones that encourage questioning and thinking; ones that develop cooperation through investing in social capital and mutual trust within the organisation. Recent research in England suggests that such conditions may not be a strong feature of schools. A report by the think-tank for the National Union of Teachers in that country (Gardner, 2001, p. 8) found that younger teachers in particular felt pay prospects and lack of control over the way they taught as a result of government initiatives, were causing them to question their commitment to the profession. “Most teachers argued consistently that centrally driven educational reform meant that they experienced change as never-ending barrage of externally imposed, randomly timed and badly managed initiatives that they had little constructive role in helping to shape.” As stress was purported to be a widespread feature of work in teaching in England, Troman (2000) studied an opportunity sample of 20 teachers referred to a local authority Occupational Health Unit as experiencing stress. The study found that the intensification of teachers' work was involved in eroding positive staff relationships. Changing trust relations in high modernity (including public distrust of expert systems, professionals) were found to be shaping the social relations of low-trust schooling and impacting negatively on teachers' physical and emotional well being and their collegial professional relations. School leaders can be a major influence on such school-level factors as well as help buffer against the excesses of the mounting and sometimes contradictory external pressures. As the analytical framework for OECD’s ‘Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers Project’ (OECD, 2002, p. 8) argues, “A skilled and well-supported leadership team in schools can help foster a sense of ownership and purpose in the way that teachers approach their job. … conferring professional autonomy to teachers will enhance the attractiveness of the profession as a career choice and will improve the quality of the classroom teaching practice.” (OECD, 2002, p. 14) Spencer (2001, p. 814) makes clear that the “single most powerful recruiter of teachers are schools themselves. People who have had positive experiences in school can prolong that experience by becoming teachers.” Once in the profession, intrinsic rewards are consistently rated highest in studies of teacher satisfaction. For example, annual surveys administered to teachers over the past several decades reflect teachers’ altruism as one of the most common reasons for entering teaching. Teachers who work together in a meaningful and purposeful way have also been found to be more likely to remain in the profession because they feel valued and supported in their work. (Beane 1998; Bath 1999) Little (1995) is one researcher who has found clear evidence of the positive effect of teacher leadership on teachers’ selfefficacy and levels of morale. In contrast, Blasé and Blasé’s (2002) study of 50 exemplary teachers in U.S.A. and Canada who believed they had experienced significant principal mistreatment found that the adverse effects included early and long-term psychological and emotional problems, physical and physiological problems, damaged schools, and ultimately leaving the job. Unfortunately these researchers also found that workplace abusers often target the bold, best and brightest teachers.

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