This paper reports preliminary findings from a research project in progress which is based on a comparative case study of four elementary schools involved in site-based decision making legitimized by labor/management agreements. The study examines several issues: (1) how teachers exercise power in response to opportunities for affecting school-wide policy and curriculum decisions made at the school site; (2) what formal and informal power tactics teachers use; and (3) how the impact of gender and teachers' sense of efficacy influence teachers' exercise of power in response to opportunities for affecting school-wide curriculum and policy decisions made at the school site. Preliminary insights suggest: teachers wield power in a manner intended to maintain a working environment in which they feel most efficacious; some teachers find greater efficacy in individual authority than they do in group capacity; and informal power tactics are used to maintain the preferred working environment. The preliminary findings also suggest that if initiatives designed to give teachers the opportunity to participate in school-wide policy and curriculum decisions are to succeed, teacher preparation programs and the administration of school systems must reorganize to support the development of group capacity. (IAH)