Keys To Successful 21st Century
Education Leadership
Chapter 6
Jazzar and Algozzine
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Historical Views on Decision-Making
• The scientific management, the human relations movement, and
the behavior science approach established the importance of
decision-making
• Under these theories, centralized decision-making was seen as
the best way to enhance productivity and develop human capital
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Keys to Classical Decision-Making
 Classical decision-making: an approach that is centered on
maximizing achievement of the organization by finding the best
solutions
 Employs an optimizing strategy by seeking the best possible
alternatives to reach goals and objectives (Guastello, 2002).
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Keys to Classical Decision-Making
continued
 Identify the problem: Often multi-faceted, complex in nature and
difficult to gather all pertinent information
 Establish reasons and rationale for decisions: You should not
make a decision in the absence of sound reasons and rationale
 Generate all possible solutions: All possible options need to be
understood. Known commonly as fact finding and problem
solving. Equally as important as the act of deciding.
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Keys to Classical Decision-Making
continued
 Consider all possible outcomes: Envision the outcomes of the decision
before rendering a final determination. Recognizing all possible outcomes from
each viable solution assists in the choosing the best outcome
 Align all possible solutions to what you value: When clearly
established solutions and the values of the decision maker are
aligned; the educational leader will be able to live with the results
which translates into ownership of the decision.
 Selecting the solution that maximizes long term gains: Solutions
that are far reaching which maximize short and long term gains
should be high sought.
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Classical Decision-Making:
Shortcomings
 Implementing all five steps is time-consuming and not
possible when time is of the essence.
 Educational leaders are often limited by time constraints,
costs, and opportunity to process information
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Behavioral Decision-Making
 The behavioral decision-making model follows a chronological
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order of events
Leaders make decisions based upon all that is known at the time.
The making of a decision is sometimes more important than
collecting all the alternatives.
Expect the unexpected
If it works, don’t try to fix it!
Select the first alternative that satisfied minimal standards of
acceptability
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Keys to Rational Behavioral
Decision-Making
 Basing decisions on limited information: These decisions are
called decisions of bounded rationality. Successful 21st century
educational leaders call upon their prior experiences, intestinal
fortitude, intuition and related situations.
 Maintain your perspective in making decisions. Contextual
rationality is used to describe these environmental influences
including, but not limited to, internal and external politics,
distribution of power and authority, and other environmental
influences that impact decision-making
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Keys to Rational Behavioral
Decision-Making
continued
 Use established structures as a basis for making your
decisions: Structures such as federal mandates, state
school codes, and local district policies are what is
known as the procedural rationalities of decision making
 Give it your best shot and go on to your next decision.
Another major form of decision-making entitled
retrospective rationality, involves justifying the
rationality of decisions that have already been made.
Successful 21st century educational leaders make their
best decision and let it go and gon on to the next
decision.
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Keys to Incremental Decision-Making
 The process used while employing the
incremental model of decision-making is often
referred to as the method of successive limited
comparisons.
 The incremental model of decision-making
analyzes differences between the current state and
proposed outcomes
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 The incremental approach to decision-making provides
the following advantages:
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Establishes goals and considers different solutions occurs simultaneously
Renders the quality of the solution to be determined by the agreement of decision makers
Considers only the options similar to the current state of affairs, the number of options and outcomes are
significantly reduced.
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Narrows the analysis of the differences between existing situations and options
Deemphasizes theoretical analyses and increase the comparisons of concrete alternatives
• Educational leaders who focus upon a reasonable set of
alternatives on the basis of their experiences are able to
make predictions of outcomes with accuracy and
confidence.
• Incremental decision-making has its limitations: it is at
times too narrow and specified.
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Keys to Mixed Scanning
Decision-Making
 The mixed-scanning model provides a pragmatic
approach to complexities and uncertainties while
meeting the needs of decision-making under these
conditions (Etzioni, 1990; Etzioni, 1967).
 This approach is actually a synthesis of the
behavioral and the incremental models.
 Educational leaders examine data that is both of
slight importance as well as data that is deeply
entrenched in their school’s culture.
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Seven Keys to Successful Implementation
of the Mixed Scanning Model
 Arrive at your decision through trial and error: Search
for reasonable alternatives. Select, implement, and test.
Adjust and modify as the outcomes become clear.
 View each decision you make as tentative: View
decisions as part of a continuous process not a terminal
end. Respond positively to changing conditions. Remain
tentative in making decisions. Change-given a set of
unforeseeable circumstances at the time.
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 Buy more time if you can. Do not make a decision
that results in a worse outcome than if a decision
were not made in the first place. If additional time
is needed explain to others the importance of this
additional time. A delay to collect and analyze
more information before taking action is crucial.
 Reveal your decision in stages. Stagger your
decisions. By revealing your decision in stages,
educational leaders will be able to evaluate the
outcomes of each decision before proceeding to
the next revelation.
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 Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: Allow the usage of
partial resources until the consequences are satisfactory.
 Diversity your alternatives, maximize your gains:
Treating each alternative as an investment. Make
adjustments on the basis of the gains. By diversifying
their alternative, educational leaders are able to maximize
their gains
 Keep your options open: Position yourself in the
decisions that you make to be able to rescind, reverse and
improve your decisions again when additional
information is known.
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Keys to Garbage Can
Decision-Making
 The Garbage Can Decision-Making approach is
unlike other classical decision making models
because solutions are developed before problems
are determined (Kingdon, 2003).
 Instead of awaiting a problem to respond to,
decision makers may be waiting for an
opportunity to implement the decisions that
already have been determined
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Limitations of using the Garbage Can
Decision Making Approach
 Decisions often lack consideration of unique
circumstances surrounding each situation.
 This approach relies on the chance that a certain
problem will occur
 Most likely to occur in organizations that
experience extremely high uncertainty without
established board policies and administrator
procedures
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Keys to Shared Decision-Making
 Educational leaders determine whether to involve others
in the decision-making process or make the decision
independently.
 Shared Decision-Making: maximizes participation
making decisions whether it involves administrators,
teachers, students, parents, and/or community members.
 The intent is to support and increase student learning.
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Five Keys to
Sharing a Decision
 Calling others together to share a decision:
Inform others of a decisions, share the rationale of
an established decision, give others a chance to
ask questions, digest the implications of the
decision and prepare for the outcomes of the
decision, hope others will accept the decision
more readily.
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 Calling others together to seek input: Facilitation
of a more rational and logical decision; The
educational leaders will ultimately be making the
decision based upon the consensus of information
they have attained from others; extend
appreciation to others for their input; explain that
the thoughts of others will not necessarily be
reflected in their decisions.
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 Calling others together to value their ideas:
Demonstrate care for their thoughts, concerns and
recommendations
 Calling others together to obtain a majority rule:
Offers the advantage of specifically encouraging
opinions and shifting positions in time as ideas
and values change; the majority rule technique
has the distinct disadvantage of creating winners
and losers
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 When calling others together; use consensus to
determine decisions: Explain the process for
making decisions straight from the onset;
consensus may create pressure; it is recommended
that consensus building be implemented sparingly
 Although shared decision-making empowers
others it also means increased responsbility on the
shoulders of others. Participants need to be
willing to risk emotional involvement in
situations once perceived as off limits under
autocratic paradigms.
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 If shared decisions making is to be successful,
educational leaders will need to provide the
following keys to development successful 21st
century shared decision-making process (Clemen,
1996; Ghahramani, 1996).
 Educational leaders need to build collaborative
cultures: Creating a collaborative culture that
value others as capable contributors to the
decision-making process will not be an easy
undertaking.
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 Educational leaders need professional
development as well to bring this change: Leaders
need to be trained to transform educational
settings into collegial environments.
 Educational leaders need to align personal values
with organizational values: Leaders must
establish congruence between personal values and
organizational values when it comes to
implementing shared decision-making strategies.
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 Educational leaders need to sustain shared
decision-making practices: Leaders need to
establish mechanisms and procedures to initiate
and sustain shared decision-making processes.
 Educational leaders will need to provide
meaningful training for others: Provide skill
acquisition for all staff members through
meaningful, real-life training opportunities.
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 Educational leaders need to provide reflection
and celebration: Provide training that includes
opportunities for personal and organizational
reflection and celebration. Take time to celebrate
successes!
 Educational leaders will need to provide
assessment and awareness opportunities: Ensure
that training includes an understanding of the
importance of assessment and awareness of the
change process and tailored to the different types
of decisions that will need to be made.
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Advantages of
Shared Decision-Making
 Shared decision-making increases faculty morale.
 Shared decision-making fosters job satisfaction.
 Shared decision-making builds faculty support of their
educational leaders
 Shared decision-making increases faculty support of
decisions
 Times for implementing are thoughtfully selected by
educational leaders.
 Shared decision-making positively impact job satisfaction
 Shared decision-making benefits mental health.
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The Rusty Keys of
Shared Decision-Making
 Each faculty member’s voice may not be encouraged and
respected
 Some members may not always keep an open mind
 Sometimes members do not clearly hear and understand
what is being said by another
 If these tendencies are allowed to dominate, the negative
consequences of group decision-making erodes the
qualities of group decision-making such as innovation,
creativity and ownership (Drucker, 2002).
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Risks That Impede
Group Decision-Making
 Risk 1: Shared decision-making members drop their
guard! They ignore obvious limitations of their decision,
take extreme risks, and are overly optimistic which
adversely impacts future thoughts of group decision
participation.
 Risk 2: Shared decision-making members implement
hidden agendas
 Risk 3: Shared decision-making members are on a moral
crusade, ignoring all other consequences of their
decisions.
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 Risk 4: Shared decision-making members “we”
and “they” groups leads to divisive measures that
challenge the unity of the whole faculty.
 Risk 5: Shared decision-making members cave in
to peer pressure. Members may resort to
pressuring other group members who express
arguments against the group’s collective vision or
commitments. Individuality is key to successful
shared decision-making.
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 Risk 6: Shared decision-making members falsely view
silence as golden. Members perceive falsely that
everyone agrees with the group’s decision; silence is seen
as consent. Leaders need to encourage each shared
decision-making member to share their thoughts, ask
questions, and voice their concerns.
 Risk 7: Shared decision-making members appoint
themselves to superior positions! Leaders need to ensure
that shared decision-making members uphold an equal
voice, equity, and an equal voice and vote status.
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Perspective on Decision-Making
 Effective decision-making depends on the skills,
dispositions, and experiences of the educational
leader.
 Successful 21st century educational leaders will
need to be aware that their decisions will bring
conflict from some regardless of their decision
and they will need to resolve this conflict if the
decision is to be successful.
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 Problem prevention and solving of conflicts
ensure the success of decisions.
 Student achievement is the most important
indicator of successful 21st century educational
leadership. Therefore, understanding the decisionmaking process and how to improve student
learning will greatly benefit those you lead.
 Knowing and practicing the key concepts, keys to
success and even risky keys will support and
assist educational leaders in gaining increased
student achievement and school improvements.
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007