Developing a Cognitive Model to Motivate School Principals in South African Rural Schools

Abstract The need to conduct the study was necessitated by a lack of motivation among South African principals. This paper reports on the findings from a formal study designed to develop a cognitive model to motivate the principals in the Mpumalanga province in South Africa. That was done by identifying and explaining factors impacting on the motivation of principals. A qualitative study was selected while semi-structured interviews, field notes and official documents were used for the data collection. An interpretative approach was employed to analyse principals’ experiences about motivating or demotivating factors. The findings indicated that the motivation of school principals was influenced by both cognitive and systemic factors. It was recommended that intrinsic outcomes and employing cognitive abilities might improve their motivation when facing challenges in their leadership role.