Decision Making Style of Senior Secondary School Principals Related to Emotional Intelligence with Reference to Their Gender

1. INTRODUCTION

The principal of school is nodal head for the supervision of education system in the school, also for the development of physical, social, and economical aspects of the school. In any school or college the responsibility of principal is to watch and manage both the educational program as well the budget of his/her school or college. The role of principals in planning of school is quite important. He/ She is the leader, promoter, motivator, care taker, public relations, officer, administrator, academic planner, initiator of all the academic, cultural, sports activities, effective supervisor and also a programmer, and protector of students and teachers welfare. Principal is a group leader and knows how to involve staff, how to arrange conditions and initiate various tasks that will bring out the best results. He is a leader to lead and encourage group effort. It is a well-known fact that he works as the backbone of any school. Principals should have the ability not only to identify the local needs within the school but also have to deal with the problems dealing with various departments and community. They have to face many criticism for not fulfilling the expectations of various educational agencies, parents, society as well as various stakeholders due to their decision-making and from outcomes arise out of it. Decision making can be defined as the process of making choices among possible choices and hence results in effective decision making styles. When we focus about the school management, decision making skill for any principal is very essential. Decision making is an art and a science which has been studied over generations. The selection of a course of action in different situations and problems is termed as decision which is a choice among a set of alternatives. The word ‗decision‘ is derived from the Latin words de ciso which means ‗a cutting away or a cutting off or in a practical sense‘, to come to a conclusion. According to the Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Dictionary the term decision making means - the process of deciding about something important, especially in a group of people or in an organization. George R. Terry has defined it as ―Decision making is the selection based on some criteria from two or more possible alternatives.‖ Classifications of Decision making styles as done by Lipham and Hoeh covers almost all aspects classified by others. Classification done by them includes not only the structure of the relationship between individuals and the behaviour inter-personal relationships. The classifications form the typology which includes Routine Decision Making, compromise Decision Making and Heuristic Decision Making. Dr. Hassan Rahgozar et.al. conducted a study to establish a relationship between emotional intelligence and decision making styles. Goleman found that an organization achievement empathically depends on innovative, compatible and contentment dominant environment. His findings show that IQ only relates to 4-25% of a person achievement(Bing et al 1998). Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. As it is quite known fact that emotions play vital role in problem solving and the process of decision making. The whole research paper comprises of ten sections. Section 2

2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Antoinette and Love (2007), made a study to find out Teacher's Perception of the Leadership Effectiveness of Female and Male Principals. Adegoke (2010), conducted a study ―Influence Of Teacher‘s Participation In Decision Making On Job Productivity In Secondary Schools.‖ The result shows the significant relation between teacher‘s participation in school decision making and their job productivity. Also it shows significant relation between Principal‘s leadership styles and teacher‘s involvement in school decision making. It shows management effectiveness has significant influence on job- productivity in schools. Harrera (2010) study ―Principal Leadership and School Effectiveness: Perspective from Principals and Teachers.‖ The findings indicate high level of engagement of Principals in leadership practices associated with order, discipline, resources and input whereas it shows low level of engagement in culture, focus and intellectual stimulation.

3. OBJECTIVES

3.1 To find out the relation in routine decision making style and emotional intelligence of male and female principals of senior secondary school. 3.2 To find out the relation in compromise decision making style and emotional intelligence of male and female principals of senior secondary school. 3.3 To find out the relation in heuristic decision making style and emotional intelligence of male and female principals of senior secondary schools. 1routine decision making style and emotional intelligence of male and female principals of senior secondary school. H2: There is a significant correlation between compromise decision making style and emotional intelligence of male and female principals of senior secondary school. H3: There is a significant correlation between heuristic decision making style and emotional intelligence of male and female principals of senior secondary school.

TERMS AND VARIABLES

Decision-making style in the present study refers to the dominant set of scores as measured by the Decision Making Scale designed by Noorjehan N. Ganihar.

In the present study emotional intelligence means managing feelings so that they are expressed appropriately and effectively, enabling people to work together smoothly toward their common goals. It refers to the score measured by teacher‘s emotional intelligence inventory designed by Shubhra Mangal.

A principal is a person who is appointed as a head of the institution of the school which is up to 12th standard.

In the study gender refers to the biological sex as male and female of Principals‘ of seniorsecondary school.

6. SAMPLE

The sample for the present investigation consisted of (76) principals drawn from various senior secondary schools of six districts ofkumaonmandal of Uttarakhand State by adopting a stratified random sampling technique.

7. TOOLS

In the present study tools used are:Decision Making Style Scale developed by Noorjehan. N. Ganihar (2005) and Teacher‘s Emotional

8. STATISTICAL TREATMENT

The collected information was subjected to statistical treatment by calculating correlation between male and female principals of senior secondary schools of various typology of decision making style.

9. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

To fulfill the objectives of the study three hypotheses were formulated. To test hypotheses we establish a correlation between routine, compromise and heuristic decision making style with emotional intelligence of male and female principals. Each finding is analyzed and interpreted as follows H1: There is no significant correlation between routine decision making style and emotional intelligence of male and female principals of senior secondary school. To test the hypothesis correlation of Routine Decision Making Style of male and female principals with their Emotional Intelligence is given in table 1.

It shows that routine decision making style (r=-.09, NS) of male principals was not correlated with their E.I. Total. Whereas routine decision making style (r=-.47, p<.01) among Female principals were correlated significantly and negatively with E.I. Total. H2: There is a significant correlation between compromise decision making style and emotional intelligence of male and female principals of senior secondary school. To test the hypothesis correlation of compromise decision making style Male and Female Principals with their emotional Intelligence is given in table 1. Among male, Compromise decision making style (r = 0.20, NS) was not correlated with E.I. Total. Whereas among Females Compromise total was (r = -0.38, p<.05) correlated significantly and negatively with E.I. Total. H3: There is a significant correlation between heuristic decision making style and emotional intelligence of male and female principals of senior secondary school To test the hypothesis correlation of compromise decision making style Male and Female Principals with their emotional Intelligence is given in table 3.

Among male, Heuristic total (r = 0.19, NS) was not correlated with E.I. Total. Whereas among Females Heuristic total was (r = 0.51, p<0.01) correlated significantly and positively with E.I. Total.

From above analysis it can be concluded that the decision making styles of male principals is not affected by emotional intelligence. Many studies have shown that male use rational thinking for making decisions. On the other hand emotional intelligence of female principals is correlated with their decision making style. The result reveals that female principals having more emotional intelligence are negatively correlated with routine and compromise decision making style and are positively correlated with heuristic decision making style. So from the above study it can be concluded that principals should be provided training and students, parents, society and various educational agencies.

Antoinette and Love, (2007). Teacher's Perception of the Leadership Effectiveness of Female and Male Principals. ETD Coll. For Tennessee State University. Ashworth. S.R. (2013). ―The relationship between emotional intelligence of secondary Public school Principals and School Performance‘ (Doctoral Dissertation) retrieved from https://tamucc_ir.tdl.org/tamucc_ir/bitstream/handle/1969.6/505/Dissertation/20/stephanie/20R/20Ashworth.pdf Blessing, Adegoke (2010). Influence of teacher‘s participation in decision making on job productivity in secondary schools, Munich, Grin verlag, retrieved from https:// www. grin.com/ document/178868 Ganihar, N. J. (2005). Decision Making Style Scale. Catalogue. Agra: National Psychological Corporation Kacheri Ghat Agra (India). Harrera, Robert (2010). Principal Leadership and School Effectiveness: Perspective from Principals and Teachers. (Dissertation) Retrieved from http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/ dissertations/568 Lipham, James M. (1983). Leadership and Decision-Making for Effective Educational Change. The executive Review, University of Lowa; V3n 8 may 1983 Mangal Shubhra (2005). Teacher‘s Emotional Intelligence Inventory Catalogue. Agra: National Psychological Corporation Kacheri Ghat Agra (India). Mokena (2003). ―Exploring Effective Decision-Making Of Principals In Secondary Schools In The Free State Province.‖ Retrieved from uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/1179/00 front.pdf Rahgozar, H., Piran, P., Afshangian & Yousefi, S. (n.d.) A Study of the Relation between Emotional Intelligence and Decision Making Style (Case Study: School Principals' of Shiraz City) Vasanthi, A. : A study of decision making style of headmistresses and teacher morale of higher secondary schools in Thoothkudi

Department of Education, Uttarakhand Open University, Haldwani, Uttarakhand, India