摘要：The need to conduct the study was necessitated by a lack of motivation among South Africanprincipals. This paper reports on the findings from a formal study designed to develop a cognitive model tomotivate the principals in the Mpumalanga province in South Africa. That was done by identifying and explainingfactors 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 toanalyse principals’ experiences about motivating or demotivating factors. The findings indicated that the motivationof school principals was influenced by both cognitive and systemic factors. It was recommended that intrinsicoutcomes and employing cognitive abilities might improve their motivation when facing challenges in theirleadership role.
关键词：Cognitive Theories. Demotivation. School Principals. School Management
