Professional Jealousy in the Central Office
After three decades in public education, I continue to serve as a consultant to school system across the country. Initially, I meet with district-office administrators and involve them in identifying local problems, developing pertinent goals, and suggesting tentative strategies. Then, I meet with building principals, department supervisors, and classroom teachers to grasp their insights concerning the local problems. During these subsequent get-togethers, educators tend to be more relaxed and to openly discuss intimate perceptions of the "real" difficulties that exist and sometimes dominate the school context. Interestingly, these perceptions often suggest the existence of strong conflicts between central-office administrators and building-level personnel. Although political conflicts are part of most bureaucracies, an undefined factor seems to surface, especially as it relates to higher-level administration. I am referring to that obscure behavior called professional jealousy.
By definition, jealousy represents a variety of meanings. Some of them are provided in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, and they include "fearful or wary of being supplanted; apprehensive of loss of position or affection; resentful or bitter in rivalry; envious; possessively watchful; concerning or arising from feelings of envy, apprehension, or bitterness; intolerant of disloyalty or infidelity; autocratic."
Dictionary definitions, of course, are isolated and can reflect meaning only when applied to a context. In the school environment, professional jealousy is difficult to observe and almost impossible to substantiate because its motives, causes, and effects are revealed in subtle ways. Common sense, however, indicates that such behavior is destructive to the human condition and to the school setting because it hurts individuals and lessens their productivity. These negative outcomes should encourage researchers to probe all aspects of professional jealousy so that individuals who possess much of this undesirable trait are identified and prevented from being placed in leadership positions that affect...
This article is available to subscribers only.
To keep reading this article and more, subscribe now or purchase this article.
Subscribe to Education Week and Save
Get a full year and save up to 45%!
Viewed
Emailed
Recommended
Commented
- Elementary School Teacher
- Success Academy Charter Schools, New York, NY
- Principals and Headmasters
- Boston Public Schools, Boston, MA
- Superintendent
- Pinellas County Schools, Pinellas County, FL
- Chief Academic Officer
- Adams 14, Commerce City, CO
- Program Coordinator
- Institute for Educational Advancement, South Pasadena, CA
