PRINCIPAL LEADER BEHAVIOUR AND SHARED DECISION MAKING Available to Purchase

The study from which this article is derived was carried out in eight diversely located primary schools in the United States of America. Each had implemented the system of Individually Guided Education (IGE) several years previously; and each was chosen from among 42 schools that had already been randomly selected and studied by researchers from the Wisconsin Research and Development (R & D) Centre because they met several predetermined operational criteria. One of the several questions investigated in the study concerned the impact of the principal's leader behaviour on the decision‐making processes used in the schools, each of which was typified by the principal sharing leadership responsibilities with a representative cabinet type leadership committee, called the Instructional Improvement Committee (IIC). Field methodology incorporating interviews, observations and questionnaires was used to collect the data. In this article the background to the study is presented, the theoretical considerations of educational leadership relevant to the question explored are outlined, the research methodology is described, the pertinent collected data are tabulated and analysed, the major findings concerning the leader behaviour of the principal are reported, and the implications for practice set down. The conclusion is drawn that the leadership of the principal is a crucial factor in the functioning of the IIC.