Discussion Prompt:

Three decision making scenarios are presented on page 76 of your textbook. How would the decision making worksheet help you determine which of the seven decision making styles would be most appropriate in each situation.

76 Part Three To Lead Is to Align-Collaboration Skills 3. Share with each other the decision-making style you chose for each of the three scenarios along with your rationale. 4. In instances where the three of you came to different conclusions about which style was appropriate to the situation, use your skills of inquiry and advocacy to confirm the facts presented in the scenario, what assumptions were made by each of you, and how this resulted in different conclusions being drawn. Decision-Making Scenarios Scenario 1: Incentives Program The School Improvement Team has come up with a proposal that the school create an incentives program to be used to motivate students. One of the ideas that has been dis cussed is soliciting local businesses to donate gift certificates that students could use to purchase merchandise in their stores. The certificates would be given to students at an a awards night, and the business owners would be acknowledged publicly for their support. The team has asked for your help in sending out a survey to all students, staff, and parents to determine what incentives would be most effective, and for what accomplishments and/or behaviors students should be rewarded. You need to decide whether or not to allow them to proceed with this idea You have three primary concerns. First, you're not certain how many students will actually respond to these incentivas. High-performing students are already motivated. Students on the low end of the motivational spectrum probably won't care. So are there enough students in the middle for whom this would make a difference? You are also worried that some staff and parents might object to the commercialization of education. Promoting retail stores at a school event might be considered crass. Would you need a policy about what types of business establishments could participate (e., Are candy stores OK? What about liquor stores? Tattoo parlors? etc.). A third potential problem could arise with the superintendent. You happen to know that she is not likely to be a fan of this idea. She has on many occasions spoken about the value of Intrinsic motivation. "Our mission," she would say, "is to create life-long learners who pur- sue knowledge for its own sake." What decision-making style or sequence of styles would you use in this situation? What is your rationale? Scenario 2: Cutting Costs Due to state budget cuts, your district office recently announced a mandatory 10% reduction in teacher supplements; those are the monies paid to staff for additional duties 9 Strategies to Facilitate Collaboration 77 Decision-Making Scenarios, continued that include grade chairs, team leaders, morning and afternoon supervisions, lunch duty, honor society sponsors, and coaching responsibilities. At your school, this is a sizable amount of money-close to $50,000 each year. You are not exactly sure how many teachers actually count on this additional income, and how many volunteer for more than one extra paid duty. You need to decide which of these duties are essential to school operations, and which ones can be eliminated. Then you need to decide the fairest way of redistributing these duties to the teachers so as to minimize the impact on staff morale. What decision-making style or sequence of styles would you use in this situation? What is your rationale? Scenario 3: Spending Money Good news! You have just been informed that your school will receive $75,000 in state bonus money for posting successful results on your state mastery tests. This is wonderful recognition for your hardworking staff, and fortunately, the money comes with very few strings attached. Now, the bad news. You need to decide how to spend the money, or how to involve the 75 people on your staff in deciding how to spend it You feel strongly that the staff deserves to share in the money. But who on the staff should receive bonuses, how much should they receive, and who gets to decide? You are guessing. that everyone will have an opinion about "who works the most" or "who deserves it the most." One option would be to divide the money equally among all staff members including custodians, teachers, cafeteria workers, aides, administrators, and front office staff. In addition to trying to get agreement among the staff, you are also going to need the approval of the School Advisory Council (SAC). The SAC is made up of parents, teachers, local businesspeople, and community representatives from all of the cultures represented in your school. You can almost certainly count on the teachers to be in favor of staff bonuses, but you expect that others would argue that the money is better spent on equipment and supplies that the school needs. What decision-making style or sequence of styles would you use in this situation? What is your rationale?