Teachers Participation in Decision-Making in Hong Kong Secondary Schools LAU Man Fai, Michael NLSI Lui Kwok Pat

Fong College
This study investigated Participatory Decision-Making (PDM) in Hong Kong self-managing secondary schools. It also examined teachers

job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role ambiguity and role conflict in relation to PDM. A questionnaire survey involving 959 Principal components analysis

teachers from 214 schools was conducted.

was used to study the underlying subscales of teachers PDM and their affective work outcomes. Correlational analysis, multivariate analysis of

variance (MANOVA) and multiple regression analysis were employed to examine the relationships between teachers PDM and their affective work outcomes. Two decision domains (managerial and teaching) emerged in Hong Kong secondary schools. Teachers were generally more involved in PDM in the teaching domain than the managerial domain. Teachers from

School Management Initiative (SMI) schools had greater participation in managerial decisions than non-SMI schools, but there was no significant difference in PDM between SMI and non-SMI teachers in decisions related to teaching. Non-SMI teachers were more decisionally deprived in both the managerial and teaching domains than were SMI teachers. However, both SMI and non-SMI teachers were more decisionally deprived in the managerial domain than the teaching domain. For both managerial and teaching domains, principals support for PDM was a significant positive predictor for teachers actual participation. Six subscales of job satisfaction emerged from the analysis: work itself, supervision, colleagues, indirect participation in PDM, workload and responsibility. There were two subscales for organizational commitment which include present and future commitment. No significant difference between SMI and non-SMI teachers emerged for any job satisfaction subscales except responsibility. SMI teachers were less satisfied with their sense of responsibility for teaching than non-SMI teachers. SMI teachers may have diverted some of their time and energy from teaching to PDM in managerial issues, lessening their satisfaction in the area of teaching responsibilities. Results also indicated that there were

no significant differences in either present or future commitment, role ambiguity and role conflict between SMI and non-SMI teachers. Principals support for PDM was a significant, positive predictor for both present and future commitment, lower level of teachers role ambiguity and role conflict, and most of the subscales of teacher job satisfaction.

Keywords: School Based Management, Participatory Decision Making, Teachers' Affective Work
Outcomes

214 959 (principal components analysis) (subscales) (correlational analysis) (MANOVA)

1.

Introduction Over the past decade, educational management in the world changed significantly under a wave of educational reform towards School-based Management (SBM) in North America (Baily, 1991; Brown, 1990; Dempster, 2000; Henkin & Dee, 2001; Henkin et al, 2000; Hess Jr., 1999; Johnson & Short, 1998; Midgley & Wood, 1993; Wells, 1998), Local Management of Schools (LMS) in Britain (Bishop, 1994; Caldwell, 1995; Fitz et al, 1997; Simkins, 2000; Wallace, 1992), and the Self-Managing School in Australia (Caldwell, 1990, 1994; Caldwell & Spinks, 1988, 1992; Panfil & Siahaan, 1998; Sharpe, 1994, 1997; Spring, 1996). Following these reforms, decision-making has been decentralized and power has been devolved from the central authority to the school site, principals and teachers had greater autonomy in managing schools, with the aim of improving the quality of education (Caldwell, 1998; Caldwell & Spinks, 1992; Cheng, 1993; Dempster, 2000; Hanson, 1998; Henkin & Dee, 2001; Henkin et al, 2000; Kopprich & Guthrie, 1993; Steward, 1992). Many of these reforms were accompanied by an expectation that the principals' decision-making authority at the school level would be shared more widely with teachers and parents (Duke et at, 1980; Good & Braden, 2000; Henkin & Dee, 2001; Henkin et al, 2000; Scott, 1989). There is a common view that schools will be more effective if they are given more autonomy and teachers are involved in school decision-making (Brown, 1990; Caldwell & Spinks, 1992; Murray, Grant & Swaminathan, 1997; Wallace, 1992; Wood, 1984). This gave rise to those educational reforms which strongly advocated PDM (Henkin et al, 2000; Johnson & Short, 1998; Rumbaut, 1992; Taylor & Bogotch, 1992). It is often assumed that greater teacher PDM may be associated with the implementation of SBM (Conley et at, 1988; Datnow, 2000; Henkin & Dee, 2001; Owens, 1991; Van der Vegt et al, 2001). For example, Rice and Schneider (1994) and White (1992) found that teachers from SBM schools tended to have a higher level of decision involvement than teachers from non-SBM schools. In a study of PDM, Mulford and his colleagues (2000) also found that teachers and principals reported increased involvement in decision-making and increased level of control under SBM. However, Dempster (2000) and Sackney & Dibski (1994) did not support this and they maintained that any differences are at the margin. This discrepancy merits research in the Hong Kong context. Principals support of PDM seems to be another factor in determining teachers' involvement in decision-making, regardless of whether the school is under SBM or not (Johnson & Scollay, 2001; Hallinger et al, 1993; Henkin et al, 2000; Lucas et al, 1991). There are many reasons why principals may not support PDM. Some
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principals may not perceive that they are sufficiently empowered themselves and are therefore reluctant to increase the level of teachers' PDM in their schools (Lucas et al, 1991). Other principals may fear that their own power and authority would be diminished by greater teacher involvement (DuFour & Eaker, 1991), and they find this incompatible with their own sense of accountability for school outcomes (Brown, 1990; Hallinger et al, 1993; Lindelow, & Heyndericks, 1989; Malen, 1999). Others may fear poorer decision quality from wider involvement (Huddleston et al, 1991). It is useful to differentiate teachers decisions into different domains. Although different approaches have been used, the most commonly adopted classification divides decision-making issues into two domains: managerial and technical (Bacharach, Bauer & Shedd, 1986; Bacharach & Conley, 1989; Mohrman et al, 1978; Rice & Schneider, 1994). In studying teachers PDM, it is essential to differentiate teachers by the various decisional states in which they find themselves. Alutto and Belasco (1972a, 1972b) successfully categorized teachers according to three different decisional states: deprived, equilibrium and saturated. The decisional state represents the difference in measures between teachers desired and actual levels of participation. Equilibrium occurs when the two levels are equal. When the desired level is greater than the actual level, deprivation will result; on the other hand, when the actual level is greater than the desired, saturation will occur. However, in a study of PDM, Rice & Schneider (1994) found that teachers deprivation state predominates, and they concluded that teachers typically desire more involvement than they are given. A number of researchers have studied the relationships which increased teachers PDM may have with a number of important school variables. These associations have been studied in terms of teachers affective work outcomes including their job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role conflict and role ambiguity. In some studies it was found that teachers from SBM schools where there was greater PDM tended to be more satisfied than teachers from non-SBM schools (Belasco & Alutto, 1972; Chan, 1999; Rice & Schneider, 1994). Mohrman and his colleagues (1978) found that participation in the technical domain had a significant, positive relationship with job satisfaction and a negative relationship with role ambiguity, but no relationship with role conflict. They also found that participation in managerial domain decisions did not have significant relationships with job satisfaction or role ambiguity and role conflict. However, Bacharach, Bamberger, Conley and Bauer (1990) studied teachers' decision domains and found that they were significantly associated with all four work outcomes. Moreover, research regarding PDM and teachers work outcomes has revealed significant associations between teachers involvement and job satisfaction (Rinehart & Short, 1994; Wu, 1994), conflict
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(Rinehart, Short & Johnson, 1997), and commitment (Wu, 1994). The purpose of this study is to examine the nature and the recent practices in teachers PDM in Hong Kong secondary SMI schools in comparison with non-SMI schools. This study will also identify and examine the operation of some factors which may relate to the level of teachers PDM and their decisional states in different decision domains. Factors which may be associated with teachers PDM and decisional states to be studied here include the SMI/non-SMI status of schools and the level of principals' support for teachers participation in decision-making. The study will also explore some possible outcomes of PDM for both SMI and non-SMI school teachers. The possible outcomes in different decision domains, which will be examined in this study, include those relating to four affective work outcomes, which are job satisfaction, role ambiguity, role conflict and organizational commitment. 2. Research Framework The relationships between the variables which are to be examined are characterized in the conceptual framework set out in Figure 1. This model represents the theoretical framework of this research.

Management Type of Schools (School Status): SMI/non-SMI

Teachers' PDM: 1. Managerial/Technical (Teaching) Domains 2. Decisional States: (equilibrium, deprived, saturated)

Teachers' Affective Work Outcomes: 1. Job Satisfaction 2. Organizational Commitment 3. Role Ambiguity 4. Role Conflict

Principals support of PDM Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Research

3. 1. 2.

3. 4.

Research Questions and Hypotheses The questions to be addressed by this research include: In what kinds (domains) of decisions are Hong Kong teachers involved? What are the relationships of school status, and the principals' support for PDM with the teachers level of actual involvement in decision-making in each of the domains? Do teachers from SMI schools feel more positive in relation to their affective work outcomes than teachers from non-SMI schools? What are the relationships, if any, of school status, teachers' decisional states, and principals support for PDM with teachers job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role ambiguity and role conflict?

The established hypotheses in this research include: H1: Teacher participation in decision-making is significantly higher in SMI schools than non-SMI schools. H2: Teacher participation in decision-making is positively related to principals provision for PDM. H3: Teacher participation in decision-making will be higher in non-SMI schools with principals who provide high support for such decision-making than in SMI schools in which principals provide low support for such decision-making. H4: Teachers tend to be less decisionally deprived in the managerial domain in SMI schools than non-SMI schools. H5: Teachers tend to be less decisionally deprived in the technical (teaching) domain in SMI schools than non-SMI schools. Methodology Teachers perceptions of their desired and actual participation in school decision issues, their principals' provision for such participation, their job satisfaction, role conflict, role ambiguity and organizational commitment were surveyed using 5-point scale Likert type questionnaires. A two-stage approach involving a pilot study and a main study was employed. Statistical analyses included principal-components analysis, correlational analysis, multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and
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4.

multiple regression analysis. Five out of the 57 SMI secondary schools in Hong Kong were selected for the pilot study in 1995. Five non-SMI secondary schools were randomly selected for comparison. All teachers in the selected sample schools were invited to answer the questionnaires in the pilot study. There are about 50 teachers in a typical Hong Kong secondary school. A total of 500 teacher questionnaires were sent out in the pilot study. Following the pilot study, the instrument was modified for the main study. There were 107 secondary SMI schools in 1997 when the main study was conducted. All of these and the same number (107) of non-SMI secondary schools were invited to take part in the main study. Half of the teachers of each selected school were invited to complete the survey. A total of 5,350 teacher questionnaires, modified from the pilot study, were sent out, half for SMI schools and half for non-SMI schools. Principals were asked to select half of their teachers randomly to answer the questionnaires. 5. Construction of the Questionnaire (Appendix 1) 5.1 Participatory decision-making (PDM) Rice and Schneider's (1994) Decision Involvement Analysis (DIA) questionnaire was used with some modifications by changing some terms and adding some items to fit the Hong Kong situation. The original instrument is a set of 20 items which had factored into technical and managerial domains with Cronbach alpha coefficients ranging from 0.79 to 0.92. 5.2 Job satisfaction The Teacher Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (TJSQ), developed by Lester (1987), was adopted with some modifications. The original TJSQ is a 66-item instrument with nine factors. Its alpha coefficient is 0.93. 5.3 Organizational commitment The 15-item Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ), developed by Porter et al (1974), was further analyzed by Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979) and a short version of nine items resulted with alpha coefficients for different occupational groups ranging from 0.84 to 0.90. This instrument has also been used in education with an alpha coefficient of 0.91 (Tarter, Hoy & Bliss, 1989). The instrument was adopted in this study and modified slightly for the local education context. 5.4 Role ambiguity
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The 4-item instrument with a Cronbach alpha of 0.73, developed by Rizzo, House and Lirtzman (1970, p.156), was adopted in this study. 5.5 Role conflict The 6-item instrument with a Cronbach alpha of 0.84 used by Bacharach, Bamberger, Conley and Bauer (1990), adapted by Rizzo, House and Lirtzman (1970) was adopted in this study. 6. Data Analysis Analysis of the quantitative data based on teachers perceptions consisted of two parts. Firstly, the data of SMI and non-SMI groups were analyzed using principal components analysis and reliability measures to explore the existence of underlying factors representing the various concepts under study, namely, various domains of decision issues, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role ambiguity and role conflict. Analysis was carried out on the whole data because of the need for comparability to test the hypotheses established. Regression factor scores, which are weighted composite measures of standardized scores of all items for each factor, were generated using SPSS. Secondly, inferential statistical analyses which included multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multiple regression analysis were carried out to investigate the relationships among the various variables, if any. Nine hundred and fifty-nine teachers (433 from SMI schools, 526 from non-SMI schools) returned the completed questionnaires, representing a teacher return rate of 59% (61.9% for SMI teachers, 56.9% for non-SMI teachers) from those schools participating in this study. 7 Factor Analysis 7.1 Decision Items Principal components analysis with varimax rotation was used to analyze the twenty-five decision issues refined from the pilot study. The criteria for determination of the number of factors in the model were eigenvalues greater than one, examination of the scree plot, and interpretability of the factors. The threshold of loading for an item is .40 in this analysis. The reliabilities of the factor scales were then examined using their standardized coefficient alphas. For meaningful analysis, the commonly factored items for teachers desired participation, principals provision for PDM, and teachers actual participation needed to be found. These fourteen decision items, after deletion for refinement, were subsequently submitted to principal components analysis. For teachers desired participation, two factors named managerial and
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teaching were generated with eigenvalues of 5.82 and 2.34 accounting for 41.5%, and 16.7% of the variance respectively. The cumulative percentage of variance was 58.3%. The decision items which make up the factor groupings of teachers desired participation with loadings are shown in Table 1. For principals provision for PDM as perceived by teachers, two factors, also named managerial and teaching, with the same factor groupings as obtained in the teachers desired participation, were also generated with eigenvalues of 5.84 and 3.29 accounting for 41.7% and 23.5% of the variance respectively. The cumulative percentage of variance was 65.2%. The decision items which make up the factor groupings of principals provision for PDM with loadings are shown in Table 1. For the teachers actual participation, again, two factors named managerial and teaching were also generated with eigenvalues of 5.47 and 2.80 accounting for 39.1%, and 20.0% of the variance respectively. The cumulative percentage of variance accounted for was 59.1%. The decision items which make up the factor groupings of teachers actual participation with loadings are also shown in the same Table. Table 1. Factor Groupings of Teachers Desired Participation (DP), Principals Provision for Participation (PPP), and Teachers Actual Participation (AP) after Extraction of Common Items
Items F1 DEC20 DEC12 DEC19 DEC14 DEC10 DEC18 DEC11 DEC13 DEC15 DEC17 DEC16 DEC04 DEC25 DEC23 Factor 1 Managerial Determining school expenditure priorities. Selecting department chairpersons. Planning the school budget. Hiring a new teacher. Determining the procedures to be used for the evaluation of teachers. Allocating teachers duties in school. Allocating materials and equipment to subject department. Evaluating how well your subject department is operating. Determining students rights and welfare. Factor 2 Teaching Determining teaching methodologies. Determining teaching content. Selecting textbooks. Developing procedures for assessing student achievement in your subjects or courses. Specifying the learning objectives. .83 .80 .78 .71 .67 .65 .65 .63 .53 .89 .88 .75 .72 .63 DP F2 Loadings PPP F1 F2 .87 .86 .84 .81 .81 .81 .66 .71 .75 .86 .87 .74 .76 .61 AP F1 F2 .84 .83 .76 .72 .75 .77 .68 .61 .68 .83 .87 .69 .74 .68

The standardized Cronbach alpha coefficients of the decision issues (14 items), with two scales, namely managerial and teaching for teachers desired participation, principals provision for PDM and teachers actual participation are shown in Table 2.
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The reasonably high reliabilities ranging from .83 to .93 and the distinct factors obtained from principal components analysis show that the decision scales are consistent and reliable. In this study, a two-factor model to examine the decision issues was therefore adopted for further analysis. Table 2. Reliabilities of Decision Scales Scales Teachers Desired Participation (n=866) Managerial Teaching Principals Provision for PDM (n=816) Managerial Teaching Teachers Actual Participation (n=824) Managerial Teaching

No of Items 9 5 9 5 9 5

Reliabilities .89 .86 .93 .84 .90 .83

The principal components analysis informs research question number 1 in this study which enquires about the domains of decisions in which Hong Kong teachers are involved, in both SMI and non-SMI schools. The analysis reveals how Hong Kong teachers categorized decision issues conceptually relating to their participation. It indicates that there are two distinct decision domains named managerial and teaching for both types of schools. 7.2 Job Satisfaction Items The cumulative percentage of variance accounted for was 59.7%. The twenty-six job satisfaction items which make up the factor groupings with factor loadings are shown in Table 3. Table 3.
JOBSAT20 JOBSAT17 JOBSAT13 JOBSAT15 JOBSAT18 JOBSAT16 JOBSAT26 JOBSAT14 JOBSAT04 JOBSAT03 JOBSAT01 JOBSAT06 JOBSAT11

Factor Groupings of 26 Job Satisfaction Items with Factor Loadings

Items Factor 1 Work Itself Teaching is very interesting work. Teaching provides me an opportunity to use a variety of skills. Teaching encourages me to be creative. The work of a teacher is very pleasant. Teaching provides me with opportunity to advance professionally. I receive full recognition for my teaching. Students recognize my teaching. Teaching provides an opportunity for promotion. Factor 2 Supervision My immediate supervisor makes available the material I need to do my best. My immediate supervisor explains what is expected of me. My immediate supervisor gives me assistance when I need help. My immediate supervisor treats everyone equitably. I receive recognition from my immediate supervisor. 10 Loadings .75 .72 .71 .69 .67 .66 .57 .39

.81 .78 .78 .73 .58

JOBSAT07 JOBSAT09 JOBSAT08

JOBSAT24 JOBSAT27 JOBSAT28 JOBSAT22 JOBSAT21 JOBSAT23 JOBSAT25 JOBSAT02 JOBSAT10 JOBSAT05

Factor 3 Colleagues I have made lasting friendships among my colleagues. I like the staff with whom I work. My colleagues provide me with suggestions or feedback about my teaching. Factor 4 Indirect Participation in Decision making I have opportunities to express my views to teacher representatives for the school to consider. Teacher representatives try their best to express the views of the teaching staff. Teachers opinions are considered by the school. Factor 5 Workload *There is too much non-teaching work I am expected to do. *There are too many students for whom I am responsible. *There are too many courses for which I must prepare. My workload is just about right. Factor 6 Responsibility I am responsible for planning my daily lessons. I do have responsibilities for my teaching. Teaching provides me the opportunity to help my students learn.

.80 .79 .74

.76 .74 .69 .80 .69 .63 .55 .75 .70 .53

*Items with negative wording were recoded.

There was no cross-loading greater than .40 for the six factors. The factors appear to possess reasonable content and construct validity. The Cronbach alpha coefficients of the 26-item job satisfaction with six scales are shown in Table 4. It appears that the reasonably high reliabilities ranging from .64 to .85 and the distinct factors obtained from factor analysis show that the scales have good internal validity. Table 4. Reliabilities of Job Satisfaction with 6 Scales Scales Reliabilities Work Itself (8 items) .83 Supervision (5 items) .85 Colleagues (3 items) .80 Indirect Participation in decision-making (3 items) .74 Workload (4 items) .64 Responsibility (3 items) .68 Organizational Commitment Items The single factor of the 9-item instrument from Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979) was adopted in this study. However, two factors were generated in this study, possibly due to the different context and culture in Hong Kong. The eigenvalues were 4.55 and 1.07, accounting for 50.6% and 11.9% of variance respectively. The cumulative percentage of variance accounted for was 62.5%. The items which make up the factor groupings of commitment with factor loadings are shown in Table 5. Table 5. Factor Groupings of Commitment with Factor Loadings
Items 11 Loadings Factor 1 Factor 2

7.3

COMMIT07 COMMIT03 COMMIT09 COMMIT05 COMMIT06 COMMIT01 COMMIT04

COMMIT02 COMMIT08

Factor 1 Present Commitment I am extremely glad that I chose this school to teach in over others I was considering at the time. I talk up this school to my friends as a great school to teach in. For me this is the best of all possible schools in which to teach. I am proud to tell others that I am a member of this school. This school really inspires the very best in me in the way of job performance. I find that my values and the schools values are very similar. I would accept almost any type of job assignment in order to keep teaching in this school. Factor 2 Future Commitment I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond that usually expected in order to help this school successful. I really care about the fate of this school.

.84 .82 .82 .80 .71 .56 .49

.89 .71

The Cronbach alpha coefficients for present commitment and future commitment were .88 and .61 respectively. 7.4 Role Ambiguity and Role Conflict Items Two stable factors were generated with eigenvalues of 3.02 and 1.84 accounting for 37.8% and 23.1% of variance respectively. The cumulative percentage of variance accounted for was 60.9%. The role items which make up the factor groupings with factor loadings are shown in Table 6. Table 6. Factor Groupings of Role Items with Factor Loadings
Items ROLECF05 ROLECF03 ROLECF01 ROLECF02 ROLECF04 Factor 1 Role Conflict I often receive instructions without adequate resources and materials to execute them. I often receive incompatible requests from two or more people. I often work under incompatible policies and guidelines. I often have to buck a rule or policy to carry out an assignment. I often receive extra assignments without adjustments to the ones I already have. Factor 2 Role ambiguity I know what my responsibilities are. I know exactly what is expected of me. I feel certain about how much authority I have. Loadings Factor 1 Factor 2

.79 .79 .75 .75 .74 .83 .79 .76

ROLEAM02 ROLEAM03 ROLEAM01

There was no cross-loading greater than .40. Reliability analysis of the 2 factors, role conflict and role ambiguity, yielded Cronbach alpha coefficients of .82 and .71 respectively. These acceptable reliabilities suggest that the factors possess good internal validity. 8. Teachers Decisional States
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After principal components analysis of decision issues (teachers desired level of participation, teachers perceived level of participation provided by their principals, and teachers actual level of participation), teachers decisional states were computed by subtracting their level of desired participation from their actual level of participation for all decision issues. It has been proposed by many researchers (Alutto & Belasco, 1972a, 1972b; Bacharach, Bamberger, Conley & Bauer, 1990; Rice & Schneider, 1994) that teachers decisional states were categorized as being at equilibrium when the difference of their desired and actual participation is zero, saturated when positive and deprived when negative. 8.1 Decisional states of SMI teachers In general, SMI teachers desired participation in all decision issues was greater than their perceived actual participation, resulting in deprived decisional states in all decision issues. Equilibrium and saturation decisional states were not found in any decision issue for SMI teachers. Although the SMI structure and expectations are in place, it seems that principals need to further extend such PDM if teachers are to not feel deprived in these matters and if the intentions of the SMI are to be fully realized. The greatest discrepancies (more than 1.00) between SMI teachers actual and desired participation were found for the following decision issues: 02 Determining how the school building is utilized, 05 Determining the administrative and organizational structure of your school, 06 Developing disciplinary policies in your school, 10 Determining the procedure to be used for the evaluation of teachers, 15 Determining students rights and welfare. 8.2 Decisional states of non-SMI teachers The greatest discrepancies (more than 1.00) between non-SMI teachers actual and desired participation were found for the following: 02 Determining how the school building is utilized, 05 Determining the administrative and organizational structure of your school, 06 Developing disciplinary policies in your school, 07 *Planning staff development program in your school, 09 *Setting and revising the goals of your school, 10 Determining the procedure to be used for the evaluation of teachers, 11 *Allocating materials and equipment to subject department, 12 *Selecting department chairpersons,
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13 15 18 20

*Evaluating how well your subject department is operating, Determining students rights and welfare, *Allocating teachers duties in school, *Determining school expenditure priorities.

These are twelve out of the twenty-five decision issues, seven more (marked with *) than for SMI teachers, which have discrepancy values greater than 1.00. As before, these decision issues are mainly concerned with resources and general management and include issues related to financial, physical and human resources. However, in the absence of SMI arrangements, results revealed that non-SMI teachers may have apparently felt more deprived in setting and revising school goals, determining school expenditure priorities, and other decision issues which involve power, than SMI teachers. Again, equilibrium and saturation states were not found in any decision issues for non-SMI schools. 9. Findings Related to Research Questions and Hypotheses Research Question 1 In what kinds (domains) of decisions are Hong Kong teachers involved? In broad terms, two kinds of decisions were found for Hong Kong teachers. The first kind is managerial which includes the issues of financial and personnel management and the evaluation and appraisal system. The second kind is teaching which includes the issues related to classroom teaching. The findings demonstrate that Hong Kong teachers preferred to be and in fact were perceived to be more involved in PDM in the teaching domain than the managerial domain, even for SMI schools. The findings support previous research by High and colleagues (1989) that teachers preferred to be involved in curriculum and instruction efforts. Research Question 2 What are the relationships of school status, and the principals support of PDM, with the teachers level of actual participation in decision-making in each of the domain? Hypothesis 2 Teacher participation in decision-making is positively related to principals provision for PDM. Table 7 Correlations of Teachers Actual Participation, Principals Provision for Participation and School Status
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FSDECC1 FSDECC2 FSDECB1 FSDECB2 SCHID N =800 *p<0.05 **p<0.01 Key: FSDECC1=Teachers actual participation in managerial domain FSDECC2=Teachers actual participation in teaching domain FSDECB1=Principals provision for participation in the managerial domain FSDECB2= Principals provision for participation in the teaching domain SCHID=School status (SMI or non-SMI)

FSDECC1 1.00

FSDECC2 -0.01 1.00

FSDECB1 0.53** 0.07 1.00

FSDECB2 0.00 0.64** 0.01 1.00

SCHID 0.11* -0.01 0.08 -0.01 1.00

Table 8 Multiple Regression of Teachers Actual Participation in the Managerial Domain (dependent) with Principals Provision for Participation (PPP) and School Status (SMI or non-SMI) Step Variables Entered R2 Increase in R2 Beta F 1 PPP in managerial domain 0.279 0.526 309.09*** 2 School Status 0.283 0.004 0.064 157.51*** ***p<0.001

Table 9 Multiple Regression of Teachers Actual Participation in the Teaching Domain (dependent) with Principals Provision for Participation (PPP) and School Status (SMI or non-SMI) Step Variables Entered R2 Increase in R2 Beta F 1 PPP in teaching domain 0.412 0.642 559.31*** 2 PPP in managerial domain 0.416 0.004 0.065 284.21*** ***p<0.001 Correlational analysis (Table 7) indicated that, for both the managerial and the teaching domains, principals provision for participation was positively related to teachers actual participation. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis (Tables 8 & 9) also indicated that, for both the managerial and the teaching domains, principals provision for participation was a strong positive predictor of teachers actual participation. Additionally, it was found that school status was a significant but weaker predictor for teachers actual participation in the managerial domain. However, school status was not a significant predictor for teachers actual participation in the teaching domain. The answer to research question 2 is that
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although school status is an indicator of teachers PDM in one decision domain (managerial), the predominant indicator for the level of actual teachers PDM is the level of principals provision for participation. The results of this study also support hypothesis 2. Research Question 3 Do teachers from SMI schools feel more positive in relation to their affective work outcomes than teachers from non-SMI schools? Table 10 A Comparison of Teachers Job Satisfaction in Different Facets between SMI and Non-SMI Schools SMI Non-SMI Variables Mean SD Mean SD F Work Itself -0.045 1.029 0.038 0.975 1.556 Supervision 0.051 0.968 -0.043 1.025 1.985 Colleagues -0.002 0.096 0.002 1.033 0.003 Indirect Participation in PDM 0.056 0.971 -0.047 1.022 2.421 Workload -0.006 0.987 0.005 1.011 0.028 Responsibility -0.109 1.016 0.091 0.978 9.100** **p<0.01 MANOVA was employed to examine the affective work outcomes between SMI and non-SMI teachers. Results from Table 10 indicated that there was no significant difference in all job satisfaction subscales, except responsibility, between SMI and non-SMI teachers. Perhaps surprisingly, SMI teachers were found to be less satisfied with the responsibility aspect than non-SMI teachers. Responsibility in this study refers to teachers lesson planning, teaching, and helping students to learn. It is possible that SMI teachers had diverted some of their time and energy from teaching to PDM in managerial issues, lessening their satisfaction in the area of teaching responsibility. Results also indicated that there were no significant differences in either present or future commitment with insignificant overall multivariate tests (F=1.283, p>0.05) between SMI and non-SMI teachers. Teachers role conflict and role ambiguity were also compared between SMI and non-SMI schools using MANOVA. The overall multivariate tests were insignificant (F=1.113, p>0.05) for the criteria tests. Thus, one has no reason to reject the null hypothesis that there is no difference in teachers role conflict and role ambiguity for SMI and non-SMI schools. This study did not find that in general SMI teachers had greater job satisfaction, or commitment, or less role ambiguity and role conflict than non-SMI teachers, as might have been expected.

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Research Question 4 What are the relationships, if any, of school status, teachers decisional states, and principals support for PDM with teachers job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role ambiguity, and role conflict? Table 11 Correlations of Teachers Decisional States, Teachers Commitment, Principals Provision for Participation and School Status
DS1 DS2 FSCOM1 FSCOM2 FSDECB1 FSDECB2 SCHID N=774 DS1 1.00 DS2 0.25** 1.00 FSCOM1 0.29** 0.26** 1.00 FSCOM2 0.03 0.26 -0.01 1.00 FSDECB1 0.33** 0.24** 0.24** 0.13** 1.00 FSDECB2 -0.03 0.18** 0.16** 0.23** 0.01 1.00 SCHID 0.07 0.08 -0.04 -0.01 -0.08 -0.01 1.00

*p<0.05 **p<0.01

Key: DS1=Teachers decisional state in managerial domain DS2=Teachers decisional state in teaching domain FSCOM1=Teachers Present Commitment FSCOM2= Teachers Future Commitment FSDECB1=Principals provision for participation in the managerial domain FSDECB2= Principals provision for participation in the teaching domain SCHID=School status (SMI or non-SMI) Table 12 Multiple Regression of Teachers Present Commitment (dependent) with Teachers Decisional States (DS) and Principals Provision for Participation (PPP) Step Variables Entered R2 Increase in R2 Beta F 1 DS in managerial domain 0.086 0.217 72.435*** 2 DS in teaching domain 0.122 0.036 0.146 53.583*** 3 PPP in teaching domain 0.139 0.017 0.136 41.575*** 4 PPP in managerial domain 0.155 0.016 0.134 35.248*** ***p<0.001 Table 13 Multiple Regression of Teachers Future Commitment (dependent) with Teachers Decisional States (DS) and Principals Provision for Participation (PPP) Step Variables Entered R2 Increase in R2 Beta F 1 PPP in teaching domain 0.052 0.228 42.567*** 2 PPP in managerial domain 0.068 0.016 0.126 28.204*** ***p<0.001

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Correlational analysis (Table 11) indicated that teachers present and future commitment were positively associated with principals provision for participation in both decision domains. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis (Tables 12 & 13) indicated that principals provision for participation in both domains was a strong positive predictor for both present and future commitment regardless of school status. The results are in line with the findings by Mulford and his colleagues (2000) that teachers tend to feel positive about their schools if they perceive themselves to be empowered. Table 14 Correlations of Teachers Decisional States, Teachers Role Conflict, Teachers Role Ambiguity, Principals Provision for Participation and School Status
DS1 DS2 FSROLE1 FSROLE2 FSDECB1 FSDECB2 SCHID N=778 DS1 1.00 DS2 0.24** 1.00 FSROLE1 -0.13** -0.08 1.00 FSROLE2 0.03 -0.04 -0.02 1.00 FSDECB1 0.33** 0.24** -0.09 -0.03 1.00 FSDECB2 0.04 0.18** -0.10* -0.27** 0.01 1.00 SCHID 0.07 0.08 0.05 -0.03 0.07 -0.01 1.00

*p<0.05 **p<0.01

Key: DS1=Teachers decisional state in managerial domain DS2=Teachers decisional state in teaching domain FSROLE1=Teachers role conflict FSROLE2= Teachers role ambiguity FSDECB1=Principals provision for participation in the managerial domain FSDECB2= Principals provision for participation in the teaching domain SCHID=School status (SMI or non-SMI) Table 15 Multiple Regression of Teachers Role Conflict (dependent) with Teachers Decisional States (DS) and Principals Provision for Participation (PPP) Step Variables Entered R2 Increase in R2 Beta F 1 DS in managerial domain 0.017 -0.133 13.20*** 2 PPP in teaching domain 0.028 0.012 -0.108 11.33*** ***p<0.001 Table 16 Multiple Regression of Teachers Role Ambiguity (dependent) with Teachers Decisional States (DS) and Principals Provision for Participation (PPP) Step Variables Entered R2 Increase in R2 Beta F
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1 PPP in teaching domain ***p<0.001

0.071

-0.267

59.447***

Correlational analysis (Table 14) suggested that teachers less deprived state in the managerial domain is associated with their perception of less role conflict, and vice versa. Results also indicated that greater principals provision for participation in decision-making in the teaching domain was associated with lower role conflict, and vice versa. Multiple regression analysis (Tables 15 & 16) indicated that principals provision for decisional participation in the teaching domain was a significant predictor for lower levels of teacher role conflict and role ambiguity regardless of school status. Table 17 Multiple Regression of Teachers Job Satisfaction with Work Itself (dependent) with Teachers Decisional States (DS) and Principals Provision for Participation (PPP) Step Variables Entered R2 Increase in R2 Beta F 1 PPP in teaching domain 0.031 0.178 24.744*** 2 PPP in managerial domain 0.043 0.012 0.109 17.308*** ***p<0.001 Table 18 Multiple Regression of Teachers Job Satisfaction with Supervision (dependent) with Teachers Decisional States (DS) and Principals Provision for Participation (PPP) Step Variables Entered R2 Increase in R2 Beta F 1 PPP in managerial domain 0.037 0.169 29.517*** 2 PPP in teaching domain 0.062 0.025 0.161 25.401*** 3 DS in managerial domain 0.067 0.005 0.077 18.473*** ***p<0.001 Table 19 Multiple Regression of Teachers Job Satisfaction with Indirect Participation in Decision-making (dependent) with Teachers Decisional States (DS) and Principals Provision for Participation (PPP) Step Variables Entered R2 Increase in R2 Beta F 1 PPP in managerial domain 0.050 0.195 40.625*** 2 PPP in teaching domain 0.093 0.043 0.211 39.579*** 3 DS in managerial domain 0.102 0.009 0.098 29.036*** ***p<0.001 Table 20 Multiple Regression of Teachers Job Satisfaction with Workload (dependent) with Teachers Decisional States (DS) and Principals Provision for Participation (PPP)
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Step Variables Entered 1 DS in managerial domain 2 DS in teaching domain ***p<0.001

R2 0.027 0.038

Increase in R2 0.011

Beta 0.140 0.105

F 21.413*** 14.958***

Results (Tables 17 to 20) also indicated that principals provision for participation was a significant positive predictor for teachers job satisfaction with respect to work itself, supervision, indirect PDM and workload. However, no independent variable was a significant predictor for job satisfaction with respect to colleagues. This may be because collaborative teaching requiring close communication among colleagues was not common in Hong Kong at the time of this research, and close teaching relationships with colleagues do not seem to be essential to teachers. In general, although no significant differences in affective work outcomes were found between SMI and non-SMI teachers, principals provision for PDM is a prevailing positive predictor of many of the teachers affective work outcomes regardless of school status. Hypothesis 1 Teacher participation in decision-making is significantly higher in SMI schools than non-SMI schools. Table 21 A Comparison of Teachers Actual Participation (AP) in Different Domains between SMI and non-SMI Schools SMI Non-SMI Variables Mean SD Mean SD F AP in Managerial Domain 0.127 0.996 -0.106 0.992 11.26** AP in Teaching Domain -0.008 0.999 0.007 1.002 0.04 **p<0.01 Teachers actual participation in each of the managerial and the teaching domains between SMI schools and non-SMI schools was examined by MANOVA. Results (Table 21) indicated that SMI teachers had greater actual participation in the managerial domain than non-SMI teachers. However, there was no significant difference between SMI and non-SMI teachers in the level of actual participation in the teaching domain. This would suggest that increased participation in SMI schools has been focused primarily in the managerial domain. This also suggests that school status is not a significant factor in determining teachers actual participation in the teaching domain. As a result, the first hypothesis in this study, that participation in decision-making is significantly higher in SMI schools than non-SMI schools, is supported for the managerial domain but not for the teaching domain.
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Hypothesis 3 Teacher participation in decision-making will be higher in non-SMI schools with principals who provide high support for such decision-making than in SMI schools in which principals provide low support for such decision-making. In order to address hypothesis 3, it was intended to examine interaction effects between school status and principals provision for participation in the multiple regression analysis. However, the product term of these two independent variables was not a significant predictor for teachers PDM. Therefore hypothesis 3 was not supported. Results of this study indicated that principals provision for participation is a more important positive predictor of teachers PDM than the factor, school status. These results support other related findings (Chapman & Boyd, 1986; Chui, 1996; Defour & Eaker, 1991; Hallinger et al, 1993; Henkin et al, 2000; Leithwood & Menzies, 1998; Lucas et al, 1991) which demonstrated that principals attitudes and practices are of great significance in determining a schools culture and organizational patterns which are essential for the success of SBM. Hypothesis 4 Teachers tend to be less decisionally deprived in the managerial domain in SMI schools than non-SMI schools. Hypothesis 5 Teachers tend to be less decisionally deprived in the teaching domain in SMI schools than non-SMI schools. Table 22 A Comparison of Decisional State (DS) in the Two Domains between SMI and non-SMI Schools SMI Non-SMI Variables Mean SD Mean SD F DS in Managerial Domain 0.102 1.082 -0.078 1.188 4.984* DS in Teaching Domain 0.068 0.765 -0.058 0.807 5.129* *p<0.05 Table 23 A Comparison of Teachers Actual Participation (AP) in Different Domains between SMI and non-SMI Schools SMI Non-SMI Variables Mean SD Mean SD F AP in Managerial Domain 0.127 0.996 -0.106 0.992 11.26** AP in Teaching Domain -0.008 0.999 0.007 1.002 0.04
21

**p<0.01 Table 24 A Comparison of Principals Provision for Participation (PPP) in Different Domains between SMI and non-SMI Schools Non-SMI SMI Variables Mean SD Mean SD F PPP in Managerial Domain 0.096 0.953 -0.080 1.032 6.256* PPP in Teaching Domain -0.015 0.985 0.012 1.013 0.145 *p<0.05 Results (Tables 22 to 24) indicated that non-SMI teachers were more decisionally deprived in both the managerial and teaching domains than were SMI teachers. However, in terms of decision domains, both SMI and non-SMI teachers were more decisionally deprived in the managerial domain than the teaching domain. This suggests that principals, even in SMI schools, may have been hesitant to share as much managerial PDM with teachers as they would like, probably for reasons of accountability or school cultures. The results, therefore, support the fourth and the fifth hypotheses of this study. 10. Discussion The Advisory Committee on SBM was appointed by the former Education Department (ED), now restructured as Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB), to examine three major aspects of SBM: the governance structure and accountability framework, flexible funding models, and school management practices. Subsequently a consultation document about SBM was released (Advisory Committee on SBM, 2000). One of the recommendations by the Committee is the introduction of two or more teacher managers in the SMC (Advisory Committee on SBM, 2000, p. 12). The teacher managers are to be elected from the teaching staff. Their roles, as recommended by the Committee, include to provide professional expertise for the improvement of student learning and associated school management; and be a solid link between the SMCs and the staff of the schools" (Advisory Committee on SBM, 2000, p. 17). Clearly, it advocates PDM whereby teachers are expected to have formal structures to be involved in both managerial and teaching decisions. The results obtained in this study indicated that teachers reported that they were decisionally deprived in both domains even in SMI schools, and that non-SMI teachers were more deprived in PDM than their SMI colleagues. It could therefore be expected that teachers would welcome these further formal opportunities for involvement, particularly in the new policy context in which all schools are in effect SMI schools. However, no significant difference was found in this study in teachers
22

affective work outcomes between SMI and non-SMI teachers, suggesting that some of the expected advantages of PDM put forward by the ED had not yet been achieved. Moreover, SMI teachers were reported to be less satisfied with their teaching responsibility, suggesting that greater managerial involvement may hamper their sense of satisfaction with their teaching roles. This needs to be monitored. Although principals provision for PDM was found to be a positive significant predictor for teachers job satisfaction with workload, teachers perceived deprivation in PDM may be due as much to their limited time to participate because of their busy workload, even though they desire to participate and the principals actually provide such a chance for PDM. Because of large class sizes and heavy teaching duties, it is possible that teachers will not be able to afford much time and energy for managerial decision-making involvement without adversely affecting their teaching satisfaction. It would be helpful, without calling on major additional resources, if those teachers elected to the SMC were to be compensated by lighter teaching loads for the period they serve on the SMC. This might allow for greater PDM without any consequential negative effects on their satisfaction with their teaching responsibility. Many education reforms including SBM originated in western countries. In order to understand PDM as it operates in a particular school system, the related cultural issues have to be addressed (Dimmock, 1998). Dimmock (1998) posited that Hong Kong teachers, in an Asian culture, tend to follow and respect authority and power. Similarly, Cheng and Wong (1996) have maintained that teachers often perceive participation as a privilege granted from authority rather than a right. Consequently, Hong Kong teachers may tend to be passive, self-censoring, and reluctant to challenge authority even if a PDM structure of the kind proposed in the Advisory Committees report is put in place. Despite their desire for greater involvement, as confirmed by this study, they may think it is a safe action to avoid conflict and any possible social or professional sanctions from their principals or peers. It is therefore essential to develop in Hong Kong teachers the attitudes, knowledge and skills which are necessary for effective PDM. Training in PDM for both student-teachers and practicing teachers may be necessary for the success of SBM. Teachers may need to be helped to realize that disagreement does not necessarily represent an attempt to undermine the groups decision. In general, results in this study indicated that principals provision for participation was associated with teachers decisional states, and it was a prevailing positive predictor in predicting teachers affective work outcomes regardless of the school management type. The results, as discussed earlier, are in line with other studies which found that principals support for PDM is a critical element for the
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success of SBM. Thus, under this wave of school reform, principals leadership style will need to be of a kind which encourages and supports genuine teacher involvement in decision-making in both domains. This might be seen to be a transformational form of leadership in which principals develop vision and goals with teachers, and provide appropriate resources and support for the implementation of PDM (Leithwood & Menzies, 1998). Under the changing roles of principals resulting from the SBM trend, there are three dilemmas principals have to face, namely dilemmas of autonomy, efficiency and accountability (Wildy & Louden, 2000). As elaborated by Wildy & Louden (2000), The autonomy dilemma concerns how to provide strong and shared leadership. The efficiency dilemma concerns how to lead collaborative decision-making and to ensure that decision-making is efficient. The accountability dilemma concerns how to empower local decision-making and to comply with external accountability requirements (p. 183). If PDM is absent in the principals leadership styles, they may be viewed as autocratic, whereas principals investing too much in PDM may be considered indecisive. As schools are offered more autonomy the art of balance in the implementation of PDM may become more situational, depending on the perceived relevance of the decision issues, teachers expertise, and school culture. When PDM is practiced, some conflict resulting from unsupported opinions from teachers is inevitable. The principal has to judge whether a particular decision should be made by himself/herself alone, or be the subject of discussion, with input from teachers. If PDM is seen as a token only, by teachers, lacking any power of influence, they will not continue to participate actively in the decision-making process. In Hong Kong, the current teacher involvement in SMCs is typically indirect and restricted. Only one or two teacher representatives normally attend the SMC to express their opinions on behalf of their colleagues, often without having a voting right. Often they are excluded from the discussion whenever the agenda is concerned with personnel and some controversial issues. Upon future legislation (Advisory Committee on SBM, 2000) the Education Ordinance will be amended so that teacher managers and principal managers will have legal status in the SMC. This will place greater demands for flexibility upon principals. As it is unlikely that a representative decision-making model as proposed will fully satisfy the increasing desire for more teacher involvement in decision-making identified in this study, there may also be a need for the supervisor and principal to set up informal and casual dialogue opportunities with teachers. Genuine ideas may be more effectively exchanged in such a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. In these changed contexts principals roles and duties are becoming more
24

complex. Many principals may need to acquire new attitudes and skills to effectively manage the greater levels of PDM proposed now for all schools. New leadership responsibilities also include facilitation, mediation, co-ordination and collaboration within and among constituent groups (Henkin et al, 2000, p. 153). These new roles and responsibilities also involve the abilities to motivate, guide, and facilitate success through the devolution of responsibilities. This provides a challenge to the education system for the selection, professional development and evaluation of principals. Clearly, with strong, open and participatory leadership from the principal, supervisor, and school managers, SBM in Hong Kong is more likely to succeed. The results of this study indicated that there is no significant difference in teachers commitment, role ambiguity, role conflict and all subscales of job satisfaction, except the subscale of teaching responsibility, between SMI and non-SMI schools. The EMB should be aware that the stated advantage of the SMI scheme that the opportunity [for teachers] to participate in decision-making and school management fosters job satisfaction and commitment (Education Department, 1993, p. 1) is not supported by this study. It seems that there may be other factors affecting Hong Kong teachers affective work outcomes which deserve further research. Moreover, this study found that SMI teachers were less satisfied with their teaching responsibility than non-SMI teachers. As explained earlier, this suggests that SMI teachers may have diverted too much of their time for managerial PDM from their teaching and this may have induced their job dissatisfaction. An appropriate balance needs to be found by principals and EMB policy-makers between greater levels of PDM and other aspects of school life affecting job satisfaction and commitment. This will not be easy, and will be assisted by further research on this issue. It has been suggested that PDM can be accomplished in four phases, namely readiness, experimental, refinement, and institutionalization (Huddleston et al, 1991). It seems that Hong Kong teacher involvement in PDM is between the phases of refinement and institutionalization (although aspects of readiness and experiment may have been passed over in the haste to implement desired change). This study has demonstrated teachers' desire for greater involvement in PDM. This suggests a degree of readiness for such participation. The early introduction of the SMI scheme in the pilot stage as experimentation also advocated teachers PDM. More research on the readiness of teachers for greater PDM by the EMB or Institutes of teacher education could provide a base to facilitate effective institutionalization. For a successful implementation of any educational reform, system level efforts such as influencing the cast of characters at the school level, balancing authority relations between schools and the EMB, providing professional development, and
25

establishing accountability mechanisms are essential (Shields & Knapp, 1997). It has been stated that successful change projects always include elements of both pressure and support (Fullan, 1991, p. 91). Fullan argued that: Pressure without support leads to resistance and alienation; support without pressure leads to drift or waste of resources (p. 91). When PDM is advocated under SBM, the concept of shared leadership, effective communication skills and conflict management should be emphasized in both pre-service and in-service teacher courses offered by the Institutes of education. Partnership programs or joint projects between universities and schools are encouraged in order to bridge any gap between theoretical research by academics and real practices in schools. Despite the fact that the EMB has recently implemented the Principals Continuing Professional Development framework for all serving and potential principals (Education Department, 2002), it seems that the concepts of PDM and shared leadership were not addressed in the program. It is recommended that these important concepts be incorporated into the training courses offered by EMB and the Institutes of education. This study provided a valid instrument to identify Hong Kong teachers decision issues which could be categorized into teaching and managerial domains. Results of this study indicated that all teachers were decisionally deprived regardless of whether they were in SMI or non-SMI schools. Hong Kong secondary schools clearly provided less opportunity for teachers to be involved in PDM than they desired. The persistent under-involvement of teachers in school decision making, despite some PDM structures being in place, is incongruous with the stated expectations and rationale of SBM. More efforts should be made by both the policy makers and practitioners within the theoretical and practical contexts of PDM in order to maximize the positive outcomes of SBM. Paradoxically, this study found that SMI teachers are less satisfied in relation to teaching responsibilities than non-SMI teachers, suggesting their teaching time and efforts may have been diverted to managerial PDM. This negative consequence should alert both policy makers and school administrators to the difficulties of determining how, when, and what to involve teachers in PDM in order to minimize its shortcomings and to maximize its benefits. There are many initiatives in the Hong Kong educational reform agenda, and it may be impractical to involve every teacher in each project. Although administrative authority may be devolved, the eastern culture with its traditional hierarchical patterns of social relations may tend to remain intact within schools (Dimmock, 1998), and this may inhibit the effectiveness of PDM in which teachers may tend not to disagree openly with their superiors. Policy-makers
26

therefore need to be mindful of societal cultural characteristics when formulating, adopting and implementing policies. School-level administrators, likewise, need to take cognizance of societal (and organizational) culture when implementing restructuring policies (Dimmock & Walker, 1999, p. 104). Similarly, teachers need to be encouraged and empowered to identify school-level problems and consider how the various reforms may help to solve these problems (Hargreaves, 1996). Although PDM cannot solve all school-level problems, it can provide a forum for teachers and school-level administrators to define, evaluate, plan, and meet their needs. This interaction may generate the innovative ideas and knowledge which is the characteristic of a learning community. In the professional learning context, education is becoming more complex and challenging. As posited by Senge (1996), these challenges may not be met by isolated heroic leaders, and they require a unique combination of different personnel in different positions, who lead in different ways. It is anticipated that parallelism in leadership which asserts that teacher leaders and principal leaders engage mutually in school reform will become the norm (Crowther et al, 2000). It is clear that the principalship has become more aligned with the concept of teacher leadership. Principals should consider how to share the leading power with teacher leaders in implementing school goals in order to maximize the benefits of SBM. This study demonstrates that teachers in Hong Kong secondary schools see themselves as ready to take up the challenges of greater involvement in school decision-making processes, and to lead the school collaboratively with principals without threatening the authority. References Advisory Committee on SBM. (2000). Transforming Schools into Dynamic and Accountable Professional Learning Communities: SBM Consultation Document. Hong Kong: Education Department. Alutto, J. A. & Belasco, J. A. (1972a). Patterns of teacher participation in school system decision-making. Educational Administration Quarterly, 9(1), 27-41. Alutto, J. A. & Belasco, J. A. (1972b). A typology of participation in organizational decision-making. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17(1), 117-125. Bacharach, S. B. & Conley, S. C. (1989). Uncertainty and decision-making in teaching: Implications for managing line professionals. In T. J. Sergiovanni & J. H. Moore (Eds.), Schooling for Tomorrow: Directing Reforms to Issues that Count. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Bacharach, S. B., Bamburger, P., Conley, S. C. & Bauer, S. (1990). The dimensionality of decision participation in educational organizations: The value of a multi-domain evaluative approach. Educational Administration Quarterly,
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Appendix 1

Teachers' Questionnaire (Chinese Version, Main Study) (1-11) ( )

1. 2. 3. (1) (0) _____ (3) (1) (2) (5) ____________ (4) 4. / (2) (1) (3) / (4) (5) (6) __________ (7) 5. _____ 6. _____ 7. (1) CM (2) AM (3) SAM (4) PAM (5) GM/AEO (6) SGM/EO (7) PGM (8) _________ 8. (02) (03) (01) (04) (05) (06) (07) (08) (09) (11) (12) (10) (13) (14) / (15) (16) _________ (17) 9. (1) (2) (3) 10. (SMI) (0) () (1) 11. (2) 1992 (3) 1993 (4) 1994 (1) 1991 (6) 1996 (5) 1995

(1-25) (a - c) (1) (5)

a. b. c. 1 2 3 4 5 a. b. c.

34

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345

12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345

12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345 12345

(1-47) (1) (5)

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 1 2
35

3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45.

1 1 1 1 1 1

2 2 2 2 2 2

3 3 3 3 3 3

4 4 4 4 4 4

5 5 5 5 5 5

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

46.
36

47. 1

__________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

()

Dr. LAU Man Fai, Michael Principal of NLSI Lui Kwok Pat Fong College
e-mail-----info@lkpfc.edu.hk (Received: 27 Jun 03, accepted 28.1.04, revised: 22.3.04)

37