Does Conceptual Decision-Making Style Make School Principal an Efficient Reforms Promoter

Abstract

The paper attempts to contribute to the ongoing debate on the impact of executive’s behavioral pattern on the speed and effectiveness of the organizational transformation. Authors consider the large-scale reform of school education system launched in the Russian Federation and look at the principals’ decision-making behavioral patterns. The use of A. Rowe’s Decision Style Inventory (DSI) gives the opportunity to get fast results for a large and representative set of principles and compare these to that of similar study undertaken earlier in Canada. In spite of the fact that the two nations exhibit substantially different cultural characteristics some important conclusions about the principals’ behavior and its potential influence do coincide, which makes authors think that these have to do not with the national culture, but rather with some generic features of the school as an organization. Practical implication of the research is seen in providing assessment of the cadre of principals as agents of change at the current stage of reforms of the Russian educational system.