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Educational Management

Notes (a) Status Quo Decisions : These emerge when the administrator decides in a situation not to
change the existing situation, not to do anything or not to disturb the existing status of a
phenomenon. It is a no intervention policy. But, it should be considered so only when it is a
deliberate and genuine decision not to take action. If it is the result of the inability or helplessness
of the administrator, it cannot be considered a decision at all.
(b) Deferred Decision : this is the decision which means no to decide it at this time. Let this be
postponed to sometime in future. It should be used sparingly and only in unavoidable situations.
(c) New Course Decisions : This is a decision which implies starting in a wholly new direction,
not just modifying the existing situation. These may be considered radical decisions.
(d) Response Decisions : These mean decisions implying actual responses to the situation. There
may be situations in which the administrator, perhaps, can not use status quo, or defer or new
course decisions and he id forced by the situation to take some action to alleviate problems of
facilitate schools and people in them to meet their objectives. Decisions taken in such situations
are known as response decisions.
Some of these are the same as have already been discussed under earlier classifications.

10.5 Characteristics of Decision-making Process

Decision making process has the following important characteristics :
(1) Cyclical Nature.
(2) Decision making is a four stage process,
(3) Decision making has four Different Settings, and
(4) Decision Models.
(1) Cyclical Nature : Decisions breed decisions. No decision is such as it settles the issue for ever.
Rather, the situation is that a decision once finalized, gives rise to the need for a series of
follow- up decisions. Having implemented the decision, there is the need to evaluate the outcome
of the decision-implementation.
(2) Decision Making is a four Stage Process : These four stage are : (a) becoming aware of the
need for a decision, (b) designing the situation, (c) Selecting an alternative, (d) taking-action or
implementing the decision.

The four types of decisions have been Conceptualized by Stuffle-Beam. These are (a)
planning decisions to determine goals, (b) implementing decision (b) structuring
decisions which specify means to achieve goals, (c) implementing decisions referring
to carrying on plans i.e. actual means, (d) recycling decisions which focus on actual
attainments in relation to intended ends.

(3) Decision Making has four Different Settings : The setting refers to the total set of environmental
conditions influencing analysis and choice. Depending upon the degree of change resulting
form a choice and the amount of information grasp the exists to support the change there are
four important decision settings. These are (a) metamorphic decision setting, when the situation,
is such that a complete change through the decision is needed, (b) haemostatic setting is one
that involved a low degree of change and high degree of information grasp. This is the setting
which is most prevalent in the field of education, (c) incremental setting, i.e., a situation that
result in a shift to a new balance by the process of series of small changes. In the setting reliance

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