Decision Making Styles of School Administrators

Abstract

Decision making is one of the most important activities in which organization administrators engage daily. There are various definitions of decision making from different perspectives by various researchers and scholars. This paper explores decision making styles which have been developed and proposed by the researchers and scholars. It focuses on definitions of decision making, decision making styles and decision making process models. Decision making is a process of choosing an alternative from a set of alternatives in order to achieve desired objectives and goals. The decision making is done through decision making styles and decision process models on the bases of culture, perceptions, belief systems, values, attitudes, knowledge, personality, policies, regulations, insight of the deciders and people involed. The decision making styles are directive, analytical, conceptual and behavioral styles. There are many decision process models, such as the six steps of decision process model which comprises of identifying the problem, generating alternatives, evaluating alternatives, choosing an alternative, implementing the decision and evaluating decision effectiveness. Today’s decision making styles were emerged, such as a data-driven decision making (DDDM) and a multi-criteria decision making analysis. (MCDMA).