ABSTRACT
Management and leadership practices play a central role for retention and employee turnover in ECEC. There is little research on how leadership practices are seen through the eyes of male educators in ECEC and how this influences their career decisions. This chapter investigates the organisational leadership practices experienced by male ECEC educators. It asks how leadership functions as a push or pull factor in male educator’s career decisions. Additionally, the role of gender is magnified in the leadership-worker nexus. Using concepts from organisation and leadership theory, we find that organisational governance leads to efficiency measures and low focus on professional practice work and is a pull factor for men in ECEC. Transformative leadership practices that develop a collaborative work culture, address individual concerns, such as gender, and fosters professional growth, are highly valued and function as a pull factor. Transactional leadership that is performance-linked, representing micromanagement and a search for errors and rule violation, is regarded as a strong push factor. The findings align with previous studies in other employment sectors. They suggest the need for gender sensitive, transformational leadership practices to recruit and retain men in ECEC.
