Blazing New Trails - Connexions

90 CRITICAL ISSUES IN SHARED LEADERSHIP
relationship. In looking at the relationship between depersonalization and personal
accomplishment, disengagement because of a perceived lack of control and an inability for
self-efficacy could hamper decision making and problem solving ability resulting in lowering
perceived levels of personal accomplishment. With the emergence of a strong sense of an
internal locus of control and a strong internal moral compass, sense of self-efficacy, one could
still feel disengaged, thus scoring high on the depersonalization scores. Yet through a positive
and reciprocal interaction of the internal locus of control and self efficacy, a strong sense of
responsibility could emerge forcing relationships to be maintained despite the emotional
disengagement remaining. Similarly, a strong sense of responsibility would not lower the
degree of emotional exhaustion and, in fact, taking responsibility could easily increase
tensions among people raising perceptions of emotional exhaustion higher. Yet, this same
strong sense of responsibility would also raise personal accomplishment perceptions in the
pride of fulfilling one’s responsibilities.
A positive, spiraling, reciprocal interaction between self-efficacy and an internal locus
of control is one possible way of explaining the findings in this study. Further research is
needed to explore the viability of this explanation. However, should this explanation be
supported through more rigorous and controlled studies, such a model could provide the
means for reducing or preventing burnout in special educators. Specifically, rather than
attempting to reduce emotional exhaustion or depersonalization that are produced by difficult
to control, complex environmental and organizational factors, the findings of this study
support the notion that raising personal accomplishment perceptions could reduce burnout
experienced by special education directors and is a more realistic possibility than shifting
complex environmental and organizational factors. The finding that two-thirds of special
education directors in Montana are not suffering from burnout solely because of perceptions
of high personal accomplishment supports the implication that raising personal
accomplishment perceptions could reduce burnout. More research is necessary to establish the
effective methods and strategies for elevating the personal accomplishment perceptions held
by special educators.
Finally, this study found no differences based on gender or work environment (school
district vs. special education cooperative) and no relationships among any of the burnout
dimensions and educational level or experience in the current position. Some previous
research studies have found differences or relationships among these variables; however,
others demonstrate no differences (Edmonson, 2001; Wisniewski & Gargiulo, 1997). A
possible reason for such variability among the studies on special education administrator
burnout could be attributed to a lack of sensitivity in the instrument used in many of the
studies. The MBI-ES survey was developed and normed for educators rather than educational
administrators, although it has been used for administrators in past research studies.
Developing and using an instrument generated for administrators could yield more precise
and pertinent information. Additionally, the fact that this instrument was not normed for
educational administrators was a limitation of this study and a potential source of error.
In conclusion, it appears that approximately one-sixth of special education directors in
Montana were suffering from job-related burnout with another one-sixth currently at risk for
job-related burnout. Most importantly, for the remaining two-thirds of special education
directors in Montana, perceptions of high levels of personal accomplishment separated them
from those experiencing job-related burnout. This finding was important in that it suggested a
possible and obtainable means of preventing burnout among individual special educators and
curtailing the epidemic of job-related burnout experienced by practitioners throughout the
field of special education. As noted in the introduction, special education administrators