Research in Social Sciences and Technology (RESSAT) E-ISSN: 2468-6891 79 The Influence of Managerial Skill and Creativity on Decision Making in Public Junior High Schools of Tangerang City and Regency Syafa’at Ariful Huda 1 Abstract The objective of this research is to study the effect of managerial skill and creativity on principals’s decision making in Public Junior High School of Tangerang City and Regency. This research used survey method. The samples of this research were 60 persons selected randomly. Technique of data collection tools is using instrument in the questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and path analysis in inferential statistics. The result of the research concluced that: managerial skill and creativity had direct effect on principal decision making of Public Junior High School. Therefore to improve principal decision making, managerial skill and creativity should be improved. Key words: Decision making, managerial ability and creativity. Introduction The establishment and implementation of Law No. 22 of 1999 on Local Government, Law No. 25 of 2000 on financial balance between Central Government and Local Government, and Government Regulation No. 25 of 2000 on Government Authority and Province as Autonomous Region have given some authorities in education which used to be managed by the central government. Local regions receive full authority to develop all fields, including education. To improve overall human resources, improve quality of education, distribute opportunity to get education, and improve relevance of education, as well as cooperation in providing education, policies and programs from Elementary Education to Higher Education are required. Improvement of quality of education is a policy to reach the purpose of national education in a planned, regulated, focused, and continuous way. There have been many efforts, including: refining curriculum, improving quality of principal, and providing adequate and qualified education 1 Lecturer, STKIP Kusumanegara, Indonesia, syafaathuda@yahoo.com mailto:Syafaathuda@yahoo.com Research in Social Sciences and Technology (RESSAT) 2018: 3 (2), 79-92 80 facilities consistent with development needs. Some of the education facilities are books, props and education media which have been distributed to schools. The creative process of principal in leading a school is an essential factor to create managerial skill. Good managerial skill requires creativity in managing subordinates (Csikszentmihaly, 1996). Creative process binds all components into one integral part. The bond which is created due to principal’s creativity in leading will encourage cooperation and develop visionary attitude to influence decision making (James, et. al., 2012). In 2012, a principal of a public junior high school of Tangerang Regency unilaterally performed mutation of teachers without any clear reason, so the schools teachers reported the principal to the Mayor of Tangerang. Similar thing happened with a principal of a public junior school of Tangerang City, who dismissed 7 teachers because “civil servant teachers aren’t required”. According to the Circular Letter (SE) of Minister of for Public Servants (Menpan), honorary teacher in public schools shouldn’t be dismissed. Principals across Tangerang City also released a unilateral policy for the students’ parents. Poor decision making of junior high school principals of Tangerang Regency and City is apparent in: 1. Inconsistency between activity plans and programs, 2. Decision making unsupported by school programs, and 3. Decisions not reflecting the aspiration of other members of the schools. The incidences above were due to the principles having limited managerial skill in terms of creativity, unfamiliarity between superiors and subordinates, and other factors systematically affecting the development of junior high schools. In practice, schools should be guaranteed, meaning decisions are made by using managerial skill, knowledge, creativity, time, and energy of the principals, to the schools are able to achieve their goals and targets which in turn enable them to survive and even grow quantitatively and qualitatively. In other words, good decision making process of principal will be able to drive school to achieve, maintain and develop positive and productive attitudes and behaviors for the school. If teachers and other staff are dissatisfied with principal’s decision, it will negatively impact macro and micro policies. Based on the introduction above, this paper will study the Influence of managerial skill and creativity on decision making of principals in Tangerang Regency and City. Huda Decision Making Decision making in rational model, manager makes decision objectively and with all necessary information. After selecting solution, it’s followed by implementation, the evaluation of the effectiveness of the solution (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2008). Decision making is a dynamic process (Luthans 2011). Such dynamic process has behavior and strategic implication in organizations. Most recent empirical research indicates the decision process which includes strategic decision-making generates good decisions in the organization. However there are still many problems, for instance managers who make wrong decisions. Back to the dominant role played by information technology in effective decision-making practice and analysis, the study relevance and the application of organizational behavior is called decision making behavior. “Decision making is part science and part art” (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2008). Decision making is important for managers or education administrators because decision making process plays an important role in organizational motivation, leadership, communication, coordination, and transformation. The decision taken by the administrator affects educational customers, especially learners. Therefore, each educational administrator must master fast, accurate, effective and efficient decision making skills. As a part of the management function, in taking or making a decision, a manager is often required to choose one decision from a variety of alternatives. In reality, the types of decisions taken or made by managers or leaders in the organization will give impact on the development of the organization. Several factors, such as the external environment, past experience, the level of knowledge of managers or leaders, and the relationship between people (members) in the organization affects the decision making made by a manager or leader. This is supported by “decision making is almost universally defined as choosing between alternatives” (Luthans, 2011). It’s related with traditional management role that when manager plans, manages, and control, they make decision. An individual with good decision making skill will try to work as best as possible to make organization runs smoothly. Someone with good decision making sill in organization will identify with their organization and be fully engaged and loyal, as well as having positive affection for the organization. The dynamic process has implication on behaviors and strategies in organization. The latest empirical studies indicate that decision making process which includes making strategic choice Research in Social Sciences and Technology (RESSAT) 2018: 3 (2), 79-92 82 produces good decision in organization (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). Decision making is a process of identifying and selecting solution to achieve desired or expected end result (Kreitner, 2010). The quality of decision made by manager is the benchmark of their effectiveness. Sometimes, one or two good or bad decisions strongly affect the success of one’s career or organization’s success. Decision making is essentially selecting from several alternatives. Decision is a choice made from existing alternatives (Dessier, 2004). From the explanations above, it’s concluded that decision making is an action performed by someone to select the best solution from a number of the best alternative solutions from a number of available alternative solutions to solve a problem in an organization. Managerial Skill Many tasks performed in a team are achieved by being interdependent and involving the managerial skills of the principal. Therefore managerial skill plays an important role in determining the benefit of the loss of process (Tarman & Dev, 2018; Tarman, 2017). Ability can be viewed from how decisions makers are able to perform different but related activities. In other words, ability is relatively stable or continuous in certain tasks (Colquitt et. al., 2011). Ability is categorized into cognitive, emotional, and physical abilities. These abilities should be possessed by managers. Cognitive ability is an ability which refers to the discovery and application of knowledge to solve problem. Therefore, principals’ managerial skill is important in decision making process. In cognitive ability, there are three types of abilities, but the one suitable in the managerial process is quantitative ability. Quantitative skills refer to mathematical abilities - where reasoning problems can be conducted by mathematical logic approach, both in simple and complex manner. It means that quantitative capabilities can be implemented for the process of selecting and applying alternatives in order to solve problems (Luthans, 2011). “Skill is the specific capacity to physically manipulate objects”. Making new products takes skill. Technical skills: knowledge of methods, processes, procedures and techniques for doing specific activities of the organizational unit of the manager. Technical skills also include factual knowledge on the organization (rules, structures, management systems, employee characteristics), and knowledge on the organization’s products and services (technical specifications, strengths and limitations). This type of knowledge is obtained by a combination of formal education, training, and work experience (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2008). Huda Interpersonal relationship skills: it is also called "social intelligence", including knowledge on human behavior and group processes, the skill to understand feeling, attitude, and motivation of others; and the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively. A manager who understands others and is very attractive, tactical, and diplomatic will have more cooperative relationships than those with no feeling and are offensive. Conceptual Skill: It is skill which covers general analytical abilities, logical thinking, eloquence in conceptualization, and conceptualization of complex and ambiguous relationship, creativity in idea creation, problem solving, and ability to analyze events and perceive trends, anticipate change, and recognize opportunities and potential problems (inductive and deductive thinking). A leader is needed to organize and manage the course of an organization. In the carrying out functions, organization leaders need skills, and skills that support for success in doing their duties to achieve organizational goals established. An organization success or failure is largely determined by its leadership. A leader must have the ability in organizing his/her organization. Ability is a characteristic brought since birth or learned, and it allows a person to complete the work assigned to him/her. The principal of the Secondary School as a source must have managerial capability - the ability of principal of High School to implement his or her work activities with involvement of teachers, staff, students and the surrounding community with the special skills and proficiency, doing efforts to make use of those interrelated activities in order to achieve educational goals. The activities include: a) Planning; Planning is basically the process of determining the activities to do in the future. This activity aims to set various resources to achieve results as expected. It means that in the planning process, there are efforts to use human resources, natural resources, and other resources to achieve goals (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). The principal of Secondary School as the leader of an educational institution, in achieving the educational objectives, requires planning by setting goals, actions and decisions based on method, plan or logic, rather than on feeling for the goal of making the education system more effective and efficient while producing quality graduates (output). b) Organizing is a process of employing two or more people to work together in a structured way in order to achieve specific goals or multiple goals. In other words, organizing is the process of Research in Social Sciences and Technology (RESSAT) 2018: 3 (2), 79-92 84 managing and allocating work, authority and resources among members of the organization, thus they can achieve organizational goals. The principal of Secondary School as a leader and manager must have the ability and skill in organizing all potentials owned by organizations and should be able to change the organization he/she leads into an effective working group to achieve the goals set (Tarman, 2016; 2012). c) Leadership involves directing, influencing and motivating employees to perform duties. The most important in leadership is the manager’s relationship with everyone working with she/ he to perform the task well and achievement of the goals or objectives set (Schermerhon, 2010). The principal of Secondary School must have a responsible characteristic, always appear as a person respected, trusted, exemplified, and obeyed therefore the principal as a leader really take function as a source of inspiration teacher, staff and student. d) “Controlling It is a process to ensure that the real activity is in conformity with the planned activity. Managers must rest assure on the actions taken by members of the organization really move the organization toward the goals formulated (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). Successful managers certainly have the same abilities, because each capability matches the fields, or the ability is more useful for the appropriate types of work. Nonetheless, the more important is to determine what successful/ effective leaders/ managers do. In relation to the principle of management in the implementation of managerial duties, Fred Luthans as an educator and corporate executive identifies five basic types of skills each manager must have: “a. cultural flexibility, b. communication skills, c. HRD skills, d. creativity, e. self-management of learning.” Leaders in domestic organizations, similar skills are arguably constructive criticism, given the gradually increasing contrast. Communication, human resources, creative problem solving, personal science development are important to leaders - not just managing, but also recognizing and observing the value of differences in their organizations. Thus, the target set by the organization will be easy to achieve. Based on the concept descriptions above, managerial skill is cognitive knowledge to know, understand and apply knowledge in solving problems including planning, organizing, leadership, and control. Huda Creativity Creative thinking ability determines one’s flexibility and imagination in terms of problem and making effective decision (Anita Woolfolk, 2009). Creative thinking does what is known to be what may happen (Fred Luthans, 2011). Creativity requires observation, experience, knowledge, and indefinite ability in which each person needs to organize common elements into new patterns. Creativity is a process of using intelligence, imagination, and skill in developing new product, object, process, or thought (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2008). They also explain that the definition highlights three types of intelligence; a creative person can create something new (creation), connect or synthesize something (synthesis), or improve or change something (modification). If someone can create something new, synthesize something, or modify something, they are creative. Creative will rise to surface if there is interaction between individuals and their environment. It means that changes in the individual and the environment can either support or hamper creative efforts. Creativity is a supreme expression owned by humans for the problem-solving process, which involves original ideas and is obtained from generation to generation in an integrated manner derived by genes in humans (Feist & Gregory, 2009). Match with it, “creativity is a process by which an individual, group, or team produces novel and useful idea to solve a problem or capture an opportunity” (Ivancevich et. al., 2008). Essentially, creativity is an intelligence or ability possessed by every person which grows naturally if continuously trained and is unlimited. It can also be defined as a process of individual, group, or team in producing new and useful idea to solve problem or take opportunity. A process is called the creative process, it is divided into two parts, finding and proving. Discovery involves the use of imagination, game of ideas, and exploration. Based on the conceptual description above, creativity is an individual’s or a group’s implementation of mental ability and curiosity to find something new (thought, idea, and product). Method Research Design Research Design indicated that: there is a direct effect of managerial ability to principals’s decision making, there is a direct effect of creativity to principals’s decision making and there is a direct effect of managerial ability to creativity. Research in Social Sciences and Technology (RESSAT) 2018: 3 (2), 79-92 86 The relationship among research variables can be described in the constellation of the problem below. Figure 1: Research Design Population and Sample/ Study Group/Participants The study population was 71 principals of public junior high schools. The sample of respondent based on random sampling with slovin formula amounted to 60 principals of public junior high schools in tangerang city and regency. Data Collection Tools The data collection in this research is done through distributing questionnaires designed in the form of likert scale. On this scale the proposed statements are supplemented with five alternatives answers and their weightings for each alternative. For the likert scale, the details are: (1) Always scored 5, (2) Often scored 4, (3) Sometimes scored 3, (4) Rarely scored 2, (5) Never scored 1. Data Collection The unit of analysis in this study was the principals of public junior high schools in tangerang city and regency. Data Analysis The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and path analysis in inferential statistics Huda Findings Table 1. Summary Statistic Description Test Result No. Variation Decision Making Creativity Managerial Skill 1. Mean 102.45 105.08 19.28 2. Standard Error 0.98 1.60 0.50 3. Median 103.50 103.19 19.82 4. Mode 104.50 98.35 20.15 5. Standard Deviation 7.60 12.40 3.91 6. Sample Variance 57.7093 153.7726 15.2574 7. Range 34 48 18 8. Minimum 83 87 7 9. Maximum 117 135 25 10. Sum 6147 6305 1157 11. Count 60 60 60 Table 2. Est. With Liliefors Test (Lo) Variation N Lcount Ltable Conclusion α = 5% α = 1% Decision Making – Managerial Skill 60 0.092 0.114 0.131 Normal Decision Making - Creativity 60 0.088 0.114 0.131 Normal Creativity – Managerial Skill 60 0.110 0.114 0.131 Normal Table 3. Summary of Regression Linierity Test Result Variable N Regression Linearity Conclusion Fcount Ftable 0,05 Fcount Ftable 0,01 Decision Making on 60 8.61 ** 4.01 0.86 ns 2,52 Very significant/linier Research in Social Sciences and Technology (RESSAT) 2018: 3 (2), 79-92 88 Managerial Skill Decision Making on Creativity 60 13.51** 4.01 0.51 ns 2.44 Very significant/linier Creativity on Managerial Skill 60 4.91 * 4.01 1.90 ns 2.52 Very significant/linier Remark: * Significant at p α = 0.05), **Significant at α = 0.01 The result of structure model path analysis can be described in Figure 2 as follows: Figure 2: Result Path Coefficient Discussion, Conclusion and Implications Hypothesis 1 (The effect of Managerial Skill on Decision Making) Path coefficients directly influence managerial skill on decision making (p31) = 0.258. Positive path coefficient describes the influence of which is directly proportional, so that perceived managerial skill will increase decision making. The t- test values obtained at 2.16 while the value of t-table with df = 58 is 2.00. The value is t count > t-table, so that the hypothesis is accepted. It means that there is a direct effect of managerial skill on decision making. It was in line with Colquitt’s Integrative model which demonstrates that decision making is influenced by managerial skill. The research result supported the statement of “cognitive ability refers to capabilities related to the acquisition and application of knowledge in problem solving. cognitive ability are very relevant in the jobs most of you will be involved with that is, work involving the use of information to make decisions and solve problems” (Colquitt et. al., 2011). Managerial sill had positive effect on decision making, so managerial skill which is a part of managerial process had important Huda relation with decision making. Therefore, the principals could optimize and improve their managerial skill to improve decision making at school. Hypothesis 2 (The effect of Creativity on Decision Making) Path coefficients directly influence creativity on decision making (p32) = 0.363. Positive path coefficient describes the influence of which is directly proportional, so that perceived creativity will increase decision making. The t- test values obtained at 3.04 while the value of t-table with df = 58 is 2.00. The value is t count > t-table, so that the hypothesis is accepted. It means that there is a direct effect of creativity on decision making. This was in line with Colquitt’s integrative model which demonstrates that decision making is influenced by creativity. Similarly, (Fred Luthans, 2011) in organizational behavior, human behavior at work states that “creative thinking skills determine how flexibly and imaginatively people can deal with problems and make effective decisions”. Creativity for a lot of people means that they see work as very important and their life goal. They tend to love work. Worker who has high creativity usually also has effective decisions for organization and organizational purpose. Therefore, principals should improve their creativity to improve decision making at schools. Hypothesis 3 (The effect of Managerial Skill on Creativity) Path coefficients directly influence managerial skill on creativity (p21) = 0.279. Positive path coefficient describes the influence of which is directly proportional, so that perceived managerial skill will increase creativity. The t- test values obtained at 2.34 while the value of t-table with df = 58 is 2.00. The value is t count > t-table, so that the hypothesis is accepted. It means that there is a direct effect of managerial skill on creativity. Colquitt’s integrative model which demonstrates that managerial skill is influenced by creativity. According to Dess and Joseph as quoted by (Fred Luthans, 2011) in Organizational Behavior, “one analysis argues that five key leadership roles can help shape managerial successes (and failures) in the near future. The include: (1) a strategic vision to motivate and inspire, (2) empowering employees, (3) accumulating and sharing internal knowledge, (4) gathering and integrating external information, and (5) challenging the status quo and enabling creativity”. Managerial skill drives someone to significantly improve creativity. Similarly, to improve managerial skill in organization, creativity should be optimized. Conclusion Based on the result, it’s concluded that: (1) managerial skill had positive and significant influence on decision making level. Based on this finding, it’s concluded that the hypothesis that managerial Research in Social Sciences and Technology (RESSAT) 2018: 3 (2), 79-92 90 skill had direct influence on decision making was accepted. (2) Creativity had positive and significant influence on decision making level. Based on this finding, it’s concluded that the hypothesis that the hypothesis that creativity had direct influence on decision making was accepted. (3) Managerial skill had positive and significant influence on creativity level. Based on this finding, it’s concluded that the hypothesis that managerial skill had direct influence on creativity was accepted. Huda References Anon, (2002). Teacher In Tangerang City. Retrieved April 10, 2013, from http://www.republika.co.id. Anon, (2011). Retrieved November 16, 2013, from http://www.aroundbanten.com/2011/09/14/principal-school-in-city-tangerang. Anon, (2006). Decision Staff Of The Regional Councils. Retrieved April 11, 2013, from http://www.creationvoice-online.com/news.html?id=151361. Colquitt, L., & Wesson. (2011). Organization Behavior, Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workkplace.. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Csikszentmihaly, M. (1996). 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