Field dependent and field independent cognitive styles of school principals in Singapore and their implications for shared decision-making

Singapore has a unique centralized system of education that is responsible for all the schools and colleges. A common curriculum is prescribed and children take public examinations at the end of their elementary, secondary and college education.;Principals make decisions in school everyday. Some are autocratic in style; others prefer a shared approach. Principals also have their own cognitive style; the field dependent are more sociable and depend on external cues for their actions while the field independent are more impersonal and analytical in their approach.;Most current literature on effective schools indicates that effectiveness depends greatly on the principal's leadership, particularly his skill in making sound decisions and involving the staff in shared decision-making. Research on field dependence/independence has highlighted many implications on leadership and for education. However, nothing is reported on any relationship between cognitive styles and decision-making in school.;This study used the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) to determine the cognitive styles of 60 potential principals, and a set of 25 vignettes on decision-making (pre-test) to measure their preferred approach in decision-making. These subjects were given a six-hour simulation training program on decision-making; after that, they were administered another similar set of 25 vignettes (post-test) to measure the training effect on their decision-making approach. The author developed these fifty vignettes and the simulation for the purpose of this study.;The data were analyzed by means of the t-test, correlation matrix and ANOVA. The GEFT results show that the men are more field independent (mean = 12.3) than the women (mean = 11.1). The pre-test and post-test results indicate that more of the women prefer the shared approach in decision-making. However, because these differences are not significant, this study cannot draw a definite relationship between cognitive style and approach in decision-making.;The simulation training program helped the administrators, irrespective of their cognitive styles, to significantly shift towards preferring the shared approach in decision-making. The effect is greater for the field independent than field dependent, and for the men than women.;More research is needed to unravel the relationship, if any, between principals' cognitive styles and decision-making approach.