Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to find out if the Vroom-Yetton model for decision-making is applicable in educational settings--whether use of the appropriate decision-making process as defined by the model, was positively related to effectiveness of a decision, as measured by ratings of implementors. Procedure. Decision makers in the study were fifteen superintendents or assistant superintendents of medium and small school districts in Southern California. Implementors were seventy-five principals in those same districts. Decision makers identified several recent decisions which had been made; the investigator selected one from each district to analyze. Decision makers chose, from the Vroom-Yetton taxonomy of decision processes, the description of the process they had used in making the specified decision. They answered yes-no questions referring to the attributes of the problem situation, which the investigator used to determine the appropriate decision making process. Implementors then completed questionnaires in which they rated the quality, acceptance, and overall effectiveness of the specific decision on a seven-point scale which had been used in previous studies of the Vroom-Yetton model. The relationship between "appropriate" decision-making process and effectiveness of the decision was analyzed using the point-biserial correlation. Findings. The study did not support the hypothesis of a positive relationship between appropriate decision-making process according to the Vroom-Yetton model, and effectiveness of decisions as rated by either implementors or decision-makers. There also was no significant difference between the ratings of decision makers and implementors. Conclusions and Recommendations. Although the study did not show a relationship between use of the Vroom-Yetton model and effective decisions in educational organizations, the model is valuable as a training tool for decision makers to help them analyze the situations in which decisions are made, and to aid them in understanding that participatory decision-making processes are not always the most efficient or effective to use. Further study is recommended using independent observations of the decision processes used; analysis of situational attributes in school districts which use either autocratic or participatory processes more often; and characteristics of school district organizations and managers which make them different from other organizations.