本研究的目的是想瞭解國小校長日常生活中處理臨時事務之情形，其一天行程中面對哪些人事？以及花在行政決定的時間有多少？這些行政決定中，有多少跟教學有關。
研究採參與觀察之方式，主要著眼於研究者與主要報導人在日常生活世界中，意義的描述與詮釋。蒐集資料的方法，包括參與觀察、訪談、文件分析、反思筆記與問卷調查。
依據上述的研究問題與研究設計，本研究有以下研究發現：（一）國小校長的學校生活，充滿著繁瑣、忙碌、多樣化、支離破碎、不確定性、常與人互動，以及立即反映的事項。（二）校長一天的時間，大致可分成預定的碰面或會議、偶然或非預定的碰面、例行事務的處理、獨自處理事務，以及其他等五類。而在向漲的學校生活中，大約有四成一的時間是和學校老師做互動。（三）在校長日常學校生活當中，花在行政決定的時間大約佔其學校生活的64%，而與教學有直接相關的決定比例是全部行政決定的34%。

What this study reveals is how complicated a principal’s task is, in that he must deal with a great number of incidental events, in addition to his normal duties as principal. The purpose of this qualitative study was to richly describe the daily work and experience of an elementary principal.
The research design used in this study was a descriptive and hermeneutic study of an elementary principal involved in the field. The interviews laid a foundation by which to collect and analyze the evidence about the principal’s behavior. The observations of the principal facilitating the work provided data on the principals’ school life.
The findings emphasized that the daily tasks of an elementary principal are myriad and complicated. Results of this study indicated that an elementary principal’s time of administrative decision making is about 5hours a workday.