Johnson and Kruse (2009) state that "decision making lies at the heart of managerial behaviour in all organizations"(p. 26) including educational ones. How decision making happens and how it works in educational leadership settings is an under examined area. This paper presents an extensive critical review of the literature spanning different disciplines on decision making. The three main styles of the phenomenon are identified as rational, arational and collaborative. A model incorporating the three styles is proposed. This model also accounts for various other influences which affect the process. The predilection for the idealized 'hard'rational paradigm of decision making is critiqued, and the comprehensive model presented in the paper is advanced as a more realistic representation of decisional processes in educational organizations. The writer concludes that the broader model of decision with its combination of rational and arational elements and collaborative mechanisms making results in a fuller and richer decision making process.
Andrew O'Sullivan (Fri,) studied this question.