AGQTP Appreciative Enquiry – Decision Making.
Results
KLA Areas Covered: (number indicates numbers of returns per faculty)
| Arts | RE | H & PE | Lang | SOSE | Maths | Sci | D & T | Eng | ESO |
| 3 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 4 |
Q1 What impact do you have on decision making at the whole school level?
| | None | Very Little | Don’t Know | Some | Significant | Total returns |
| All | 0 | 14 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 28 |
| POR | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 14 |
| Not POR | 0 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14 |
Notes: Although clearly the proportion of “very little” impact (50%) and “some” or “significant” impact (43%) is about the same overall, when you break it down to POR/Not POR, most PORs (79%) feel they have at least some impact, most Non-POR staff (86%) feel they have very little impact. I guess to change this they should apply to become PORs.
Q 2 Words to describe perspective on decision making at whole school level:
| Manufactured | 3 | Easy | 1 | Efficient | 5 | Frustrating | 7 | Affirming | 4 |
| Pre-disposed | 1 | Consultative | 15 | Fair | 11 | Well-informed | 6 | Explicit | 1 |
| Logical | 10 | Contrived | 1 | Collective | 4 | Impulsive | 3 | Agonising | 2 |
| Rational | 4 | Intuitive | 2 | Constructive | 8 | Procedural | 11 | Shared | 13 |
| Ad hoc | 3 | Autocratic | 1 | Delayed | 3 | | | | |
Top 5 (School Overall):
| Description | Number | Percentage overall of returns (Tot = 28) |
| Consultative | 15 | 54 |
| Shared | 13 | 46 |
| Fair | 11 | 39 |
| Procedural | 11 | 39 |
| Logical | 10 | 36 |
Notes: All very positive.
Q 3 Impact on Decision making in KLA
| KLA | None | Very Little | Don’t Know | Some | Significant | Total |
| All | 0 | 8 | 2 | 20 | 7 | 37 |
| Percent | 0 | 22 | 5 | 54 | 19 | 100 |
Notes: this means that most staff (73%) felt that had at least some impact in some faculties although a significant proportion (22%) felt they did not have much impact on some faculties.
Q4 Words describing decision making in KLA Area
| Manufactured | 2 | Easy | 2 | Efficient | 8 | Frustrating | 5 | Affirming | 4 |
| Pre-disposed | 0 | Consultative | 9 | Fair | 9 | Well-informed | 7 | Explicit | 1 |
| Logical | 8 | Contrived | 1 | Collective | 9 | Impulsive | 4 | Agonising | 2 |
| Rational | 3 | Intuitive | 2 | Constructive | 9 | Procedural | 5 | Shared | 16 |
| Ad hoc | 1 | Autocratic | 1 | Delayed | 5 | | | | |
Top 5 (KLA):
| Description | Number | Percentage overall of returns (Tot = 28) |
| Shared | 16 | 57 |
| Consultative | 9 | 22 |
| Fair | 9 | 22 |
| Constructive | 9 | 22 |
| Collective | 9 | 22 |
Notes: Again, all very positive.
Q 5 Impact on decision making at Class Level (some ESOs did not comment)
| | None | Very Little | Don’t Know | Some | Significant |
| Number | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 19 |
| Percentage | 0 | 4 | 4 | 14 | 68 |
Notes: As you would expect, most teachers (82%) have some or significant impact on decision making in their class rooms.
Q6 Words describing decision making in the Classroom
| Manufactured | 0 | Easy | 8 | Efficient | 7 | Frustrating | 1 | Affirming | 7 |
| Pre-disposed | 0 | Consultative | 9 | Fair | 8 | Well-informed | 7 | Explicit | 2 |
| Logical | 8 | Contrived | 0 | Collective | 7 | Impulsive | 1 | Agonising | 1 |
| Rational | 5 | Intuitive | 1 | Constructive | 9 | Procedural | 8 | Shared | 8 |
| Ad hoc | 1 | Autocratic | 3 | Delayed | 0 | | | | |
Top 6 (Classroom):
| Description | Number | Percentage overall of returns (Tot = 28) |
| Consultative | 9 | 32 |
| Constructive | 9 | 32 |
| Fair | 8 | 29 |
| Logical | 8 | 29 |
| Procedural | 8 | 29 |
| Shared | 8 | 29 |
Notes: An interestingly even spread of very positive comments. I wonder what students would say?
Q 6 Student Impact on decision making at Class Level
| | None | Very Little | Don’t Know | Some | Significant |
| Numbers | 0 | 5 | 0 | 16 | 2 |
| Percentage | 0 | 18 | 0 | 57 | 7 |
Notes: Again, most teachers (64%) feel that students have at least some impact.
Q 7/8 Decision Making Groups (Number that are effective in brackets)
| CAR | 2 | PPAR | 2 | Liturgy | 1 | Sports Com | 2 | Uniform | |
| Café | 1 | Music Ministry | 1 | PE | 5 | YLC | 3 | Leadership Team | 2 |
| Learning team | 4 | SRC | 1 | English | 2 | GCFFL | 2 | SOSE | 1 |
| Consultative Committee | 1 | RE | 1 | Staff Association | 1 | Celebrations committee | 1 | None | 4 |
Q 10 Preferred Decision Making Style
| | Auto I | Auto II | Consult I | Consult II | Group II |
| Points | 30 | 44 | 72 | 90 | 119 |
| Percentage | 8 | 12 | 20 | 26 | 34 |
Notes: a reasonably clear preference for at least consultation (80%), with at least one third of staff wishing that it would go further in that the group should make the decisions rather than leadership.
N.B: Points were allocated as: 5 was worth one point, 4 – two points, 3 – three points, 2 – four points, and 1 – five points.
Overall comment: Much more positive than I expected. Some individuals had some significant gripes about how decisions were made and how little say they had. Most staff (68%) came up with some sort of decision making process that they thought was effective.
