Faculty of Education - Theses

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End date: 1987 × Start date: 1987 × Subject: 1916-2001 × Subject: School management and organization ×

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    Administrative decision making : a critical examination of H.A. Simon's and T.B. Greenfield's theoretical frameworks
    Stevens, Susan Monica ( 1987)
    In the thesis that follows, an examination of various trends in educational administration reveals distinctive claims and counterclaims regarding the process of decision-making. The current debate in this field centres around two key issues: firstly, the identification and isolation of the types of problems an educational administrator may encounter, and secondly, the proposition of a philosophical basis for action for the individual who seeks to solve these problems. It is argued in this thesis that administrators need not only to make decisions but to make the 'right' decisions. Consequently, the role played by the theoretical framework one assumes as a guide to action, becomes central. Once accepted and adopted, such a framework provides the very justification for decisions which allow for the distinction of correct or incorrect decisions in practice. Because of this insistence on the quality of a decision, the dichotomy between facts and values in the decision making process is both recognised and thoroughly investigated within the boundaries of two well-established schools of thought, namely the logical-positivists and the interpretivists. An overview of the basic tenets of logical-positivism and of an opposing school, represented here by T.B. Greenfield and his alternative theory, precedes the presentation of a hypothetical problem in educational administration. A consideration of this single problem of educational administration from these two different theoretical perspectives then follows. A critical examination of the contribution of each school of thought, in moving towards a solution to the stated problem, reveals fundamental contradictions which prevent the applied union of theory and practice. The realisation of the inadequacy of these frameworks as the sole guidance for the practising administrator extends to a projection of where administrative theory should now be directed if theory is to be aligned with the practice of educational administration.