School restructuring American style: flattening the decision‐making pyramid Available to Purchase

Highlights the fact that the call for educational reform in the USA remains a persistent concern for educators. Suggests that one avenue receiving considerable attention to meet the reform agenda is school‐based management through shared decision making. Shared decision making is based on the practices of successful organizations in the private sector, where decisions are made collectively by front‐line personnel, as well as by supervisors and corporate department heads. Argues that this practice allows for decisions to be made as close as possible to the actual locus of implementation. Staff members involved in such decision making generally exhibit a high level of job satisfaction. This decentralized decision making is characteristic of schools identified in the literature as being effective.