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This chapter identifies the broad interdisciplinary ideologies of entitlement in order to situate and understand the potential theoretical informants of excessiveness in teacher entitlement. Although the authors' perspectives and experiences on the theme of entitlement are located in the US educational system, this is accompanied by an awareness of the need to examine the topic internationally since the topic needs to “be reconsidered in terms of contextual variables.”

Psychological and organizational entitlement were the prevalent strains of entitlement that emerged in the reviewed literature and “academic entitlement” specific to the field of education. Therefore, three strands, psychological, organizational and academic, form the thematic categories for this scoping literature review.

Most literature on “academic entitlement” deals with excessive entitlement amongst students. No reference to excessive teacher entitlement was found. However, specific gaps were found in: (1) what qualifies as excessive teacher entitlement, (2) research scholarship on teacher entitlement, and (3) entitlement studies specifically aimed at global reach and applicable to teachers.

The theoretical informants of teacher entitlement identified in this study indicate that the phenomenon goes beyond individual mindset to encompass the mediation of sociocultural and political factors in its construction, thus rendering a simple theory of excessiveness in association with teacher entitlement improbable at this time.

Our investigation of the emerging issue of teacher entitlement is viewed from the perspective of researchers trying to make sense of the concept with the intention of exploring its links to inclusive educational practice, teacher education and research. This chapter is therefore mainly conceptual, focusing on the limits and possibilities offered by the extension of the concept of entitlement, first relating to students, now extended to the teaching profession. The concept of entitlement is gaining currency principally in the Anglo-Saxon literature but should also be reconsidered in relation to contextual influences. In the educational field, debates denote several ‘displacements of concepts’, as shown in the extensive reviews and analyses of the concept of entitlement attitudes we undertake in this work. We first discuss developments and interpretations of the concept of entitlement specific to different disciplines in the literature. Then we undertake a contextual reframing based on a redefinition of the concept drawing on input from empirical research data, which emphasizes the challenges encountered when dealing with the phenomena of social cohesion, ethics and cultural diversity in education. The findings highlight the potential benefits of integrating the concept of teacher entitlement into valid strategies for implementing an inclusive and ethical educational process.

While “academic entitlement” focuses on student entitlement and its consequences, there is a need to be aware of the consequences of teachers' entitled feelings arising from their subjective perceptions on student learning. This micro-ethnographically oriented study uses the case of an eleven-year-old fifth-grade student's low academic performance at a Spanish primary school to unravel the notion of excessive teacher entitlement embodied in the social organization of schooling. A qualitative analysis of teachers' perceptions of this student's low performance showed that most of their opinions were subjective, based on their deep-rooted deficit view of students. These beliefs seemed to make teachers feel entitled to blame the student and her background instead of arousing self-reflection leading to self-realization and change in practice. The study points to teacher entitled feelings as a symptom of the wider sociocultural mores that make teachers assume the power to arbitrate without considering students' situated needs. This study draws attention to the need to help teachers become conscious of and analyze self-entitlement to enable them to base their decisions on reason rather than prejudice.

This chapter presents an investigation of the relationship between psychological entitlement and stress. Empirical and conceptual evidence is considered suggesting that Conservation of Resources (COR) theory may apply differently to employees with a heightened sense of entitlement. Using attribution and COR theory, a conceptual framework is offered predicting that entitlement is positively associated with subjective stress, based on the logic that psychologically entitled employees develop unjustifiably inflated levels of self-evaluative internal coping resources such as self-esteem and self-efficacy that promote unmet expectations. It is also proposed that political skill and the ability to manage perceptions of competency may attenuate this relationship. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the challenges associated with managing psychologically entitled employees.

Entitlement is a remote research topic in South Africa. Even further remote is the idea of teacher educator entitlement being a topic of academic inquiry. In this chapter, we report a self-study of a teacher educator's experiences and interactions with her students, in which the construct of entitlement was used as an interpretative lens. The data consist of narratives constructed from journal entries based on teacher educators' experiences collected over 12 years. Findings from this case study point to the prevalence of teacher educator entitlement, which manifests itself in different forms. Investigations need to be broadened to establish its reach and the underlying causes of entitled attitudes and behaviours among teacher educators, and how such behaviours impact professional practice and professional growth.

Purpose: The psychological contract involves expectations and responsibilities from both employees and organizations. Recently, arguments have emerged that link employee expectations to increasing individual entitlement beliefs which may not involve reciprocity. Equity theory suggests that employees continually assess their personal outcomes for fairness and that these equity perceptions could be affected by entitlement beliefs. The question that then arises is, how do entitled employees pursue these unmet beliefs and what are the implications if these beliefs are met or unmet? Approach: In this chapter, we present a conceptual model proposing that emotion regulation motives (instrumental or hedonic) influence how employees with unmet entitlement beliefs seek to advance their claims. Using equity theory as an underpinning theory, we conceptualize that instrumental and hedonic emotion regulation motives lead to different job satisfaction levels. We also argue that actual job performance moderates this relationship. Originality/Value: Understanding this process is essential as managers may constantly deal with employee entitlement beliefs, and low job satisfaction has been linked to poor employee and organizational outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This study examines influence and motivational tactics for effectively managing entitled employees, a potential connection between generations and levels of entitlement, managerial challenges, and sources and characteristics of entitled employees. The study uses qualitative methods and data from hospitality leaders. Increased legislature and use of technology, the structure of the educational system, and changes in social norms are promoting entitlement in the workplace. Generation Y hospitality employees hold a higher sense of entitlement than past generations and possess that sense of entitlement even before entering the workforce. The most favorable reactions of entitled employees were attributed to the use of exchange and coalition tactics where entitled employees find pride in their employment and management promotes teamwork and accountability.

Using a grounded theory approach, this study aims to develop a framework of teacher entitlement in Iran. The preliminary findings point to chronic socio-economic frustration as the main theme present in the entitlement discourse among Iranian teachers. Teachers were highly dissatisfied and felt that they deserved better social and economic advantages. The chapter unearths the dynamics of power relations in the wider educational context, and several factors in the immediate practical context of teaching (i.e., poor quality of teaching environments, crisis in teachers' professional identity, the complexities of teaching), that produced entitlement perceptions which, in turn, led to unacceptable behavior on the part of some teachers. The study also considers the negative impact of entitled teachers in schools on teacher–learner relationships and offers a conceptual framework for understanding teacher entitlement in the context of Iran.

This chapter presents the lived experience of 10 doctoral students and recent graduates from a North American University, who like graduate students elsewhere, have faced upstream battles against excessive faculty entitlement. The six sections of this chapter, each by different authors, explore how entitlement in the University, is experienced from different perspectives. The first four sections explore the deleterious effects of excessive faculty/teacher entitlement which can lead to competitiveness, selfishness and aggression. Section five focuses on student entitlement as experienced by an immigrant graduate teaching assistant, and section six explores how both faculty and student entitlement may be experienced at different stages of the immigrant experience. It is hoped that this chapter will create a platform with which to highlight these topics for ourselves and other doctoral students attending other universities, so that relationships and opportunities may improve for everyone.

When subordinates violate a policy, authority figures have to decide whether to be strict and make them face the consequences or be lenient and not enforce the policy. In this chapter, we argue that when an authority figure treats a subordinate leniently, that subordinate is more likely to develop an elevated sense of entitlement, which then has various negative consequences for the authority figure and the subordinate’s group members. Drawing on the literature on the sources and consequences of psychological entitlement, we put forward propositions relating to authority leniency and subordinate entitlement. In summary, we propose (a) that single acts of leniency may lead subordinates to feel entitled to future leniency, (b) that repeated leniency may lead subordinates to develop a general sense of entitlement, and (c) that leniency and the resulting entitlement can have many negative consequences such as increasing group conflict and causing low performance. We report preliminary results in support of some propositions. For example, we show that leniency that can be attributed to something external to the subordinate may prevent the subordinate from feeling entitled. Last, we call for additional research. We hope that our chapter will cause authority figures to consider the consequences of treating subordinates leniently, including the possibility that the subordinates will subsequently feel entitled.