School-based management, teachers' decisional participation levels, school effectiveness, and job satisfaction
Abstract
School-based management refers to a school program designed to improve education by increasing the autonomy of the school staff to make decisions that have a direct impact upon the individual school. Experience and research in the private sector suggest that when employees are responsible for making key decisions and are given discretion and authority, the organization works more effectively. However, decision making in most educational settings has been traditionally considered to be the prerogative of a central district office or individual school administrators. Research indicates that participation in the decision-making process is associated with a number of positive factors, including increased employee morale and satisfaction, organizational commitment, and cooperation. This study investigated the overall level of decisional participation, specific types of decisions, areas of school effectiveness, and job satisfaction levels of teachers in school-based management teams as well as non-team participants. In addition, this study examined specific types of decisions and areas of school effectiveness and job satisfaction. This study examined teachers employed at six schools that piloted the implementation of school-based management (SBM) in the Cleveland, Ohio, school district. The survey consisted of a respondent and school demographic profile, a decisional participation, school effectiveness, and job satisfaction questionnaire. One hundred ninety-seven completed surveys were returned to the researcher. The results show that both SBM team participants and non-participants desire involvement in specific areas of decision making. Some decisions, however, are not favorable activities such as deciding on colleague grievances. The SBM team participants reported higher mean scores for school effectiveness and job satisfaction than did their non-team colleagues. It may be concluded that certain decisions are not within a person's zone of acceptance, and that if required to consistently make such decisions, an unfavorable decisional participation level will be reported. Generally it was found that SBM team participants have higher levels of job satisfaction and find their schools to be effective organizations than do their non-participating colleagues.
Subject Area
School administration
Recommended Citation
Dondero, Grace Marie, "School-based management, teachers' decisional participation levels, school effectiveness, and job satisfaction" (1993). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9328408.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9328408
