A statewide questionnaire survey of 180 Tennessee public school principals examined their perceived degree of participation in decision-making in six policy areas and compared it with their degree of satisfaction with the decisions made in those areas. The principals were selected from three sets of school systems: those which had had formal professional negotiations before the 1978 Tennessee Education Professional Negotiations Act; those which had had negotiations only after the passage of the act; and those which had never had formal negotiations. The six policy areas comprised curriculum and instruction, finance and business management, educational facilities and auxiliary services, school-community relations, pupil personnel, and certified personnel. Using analysis of variance, the researchers found that there were not significant differences in levels of satisfaction among the three groups of principals in any policy area except certified personnel; in this area, the principals from systems with pre-1978 negotiations were least satisfied and least active in decision-making. The findings also indicated that principals from non-negotiating systems participated least in decision-making in two areas: finance and business management and educational facilities and auxiliary services. (Author/RW)