Prediction of success for school principal candidates by means of a decision-making test

In an attempt to identify the most capable candidates for selection as school principals, this paper examines the validity of the prediction of success by means of a questionnaire. This tool measured the level of cognitive activity with respect to three diverse components of the decision-making process. A total of 99 school principals ranked by their superiors responded to the questionnaire. It was found that successful principals, in the first phase of the decision-making process, ascribed great importance to gathering information from objective sources, while the unsuccessful principals gave greater emphasis to data collection from subjective sources. In the final decision-making phase, both successful and unsuccessful principals preferred the subjective sources, although it was the former who particularly stressed the subjective aspect. This study explores the reason for the change in the approaches of the two groups. Investigation of three aspects of decision-making processes characterizing the different groups, together with a locus of control test, made it possible to identify the various gradations of success of the principals with a 55% degree of accuracy.