Decision Making as a Factor in Management Efficiency among Principals of Secondary Schools in Kenya

Abstract

Management of schools needs professionalism in the way decisions are made so as to cause effect towards achieving the set goals and objectives. The right decision on the way to manipulate resources is very critical and therefore Principals in secondary schools have the duty to integrate a diversity of elements so as to make good decisions within their institutions. While systematic and good decisions may cause sanity in the way operations take place in schools, haphazard and autocratic decisions may destroy any developmental focus of the school. In the Kenyan school context, a number of disturbing events have been witnessed in schools which point to the way Principals of secondary schools make decisions and how effective the decisions they make aid in the management of the institutions. Often, the decisions which Principals of schools and who are assumed to have been trained make about their schools culminate into notable differences in the way the decisions impact on the development and performance of the schools. Poor decision making has caused unwarranted strikes that have seen the destruction of property and in some cases death in schools. This study sought to establish the need to re-train both the management and the administration of schools on how to make and implement sound decisions in their schools. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n5p81