Leadership under informal coercion: Unpacking the emotional costs of principals’ roles in Indonesian schools

This study explores how Indonesian public senior and vocational high school principals (SMAN/SMK) experience and interpret informal coercion in their everyday leadership. Using a phenomenological design with semi-structured interviews and field observations, the research indicates that coercion is not an isolated incident but a systemic emotional condition embedded within bureaucratic, community, and institutional relations. Three interrelated forms of coercion emerged: bureaucratic intimidation, community interference, and institutionalised reciprocity. These pressures generate persistent fear, moral dissonance, and emotional withdrawal, transforming leadership into an act of emotional survival. Drawing upon Role Conflict Theory, Emotional Labour Theory, and Riley’s Wellbeing Framework, the study demonstrates that principals’ emotional strain arises from structural contradictions demanding simultaneous compliance, harmony, and integrity. Informal coercion thus functions as a form of emotional governance—maintaining bureaucratic stability through moral sentiment and affective conformity rather than formal sanction. By conceptualising informal coercion as a locally embedded form of emotional governance, this study offers a novel framework for understanding leadership under systemic ambiguity and highlights the need for policy and professional support to mitigate emotional strain.