A descriptive study of selected faculty members' perceptions of leader behavior in two types of Virginia institutions of higher education

Abstract

The problem to be studied was that of determining the nature of the superordinate-subordinate relationship as perceived by the subordinate in relation to the subordinate's perception of personal needs in the Instructional Component of Education and the Instructional Component of Business in two types of Virginia Institutions of Higher Education. The data in the study consisted of the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire Form XII (LBDQ--XII) descriptions of the behavior of the department heads in the instructional component of education and business as viewed by forty selected staff members. Twelve variables of leadership were measured regarding the leader behavior of four department heads in two, two year institutions of higher education and four department heads in two, four year institutions of higher education and one variable was measured regarding faculty members' perceptions of need deficiencies. The information from the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire Form XII and the Needs Perception Questionnaire was recorded and analyzed to provide the data for the study. All statistical computations were done on an IBM 370 Computer using the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) package. The research design utilized in this study was the nested factorial analysis of variance. The following conclusions are made as a result of the findings in this study:

In the two and four year institutions of higher education, the leader behavior of the department heads in the instructional components of education and business as perceived by their faculty were similar on all twelve leadership dimensions as indicated by the analysis of variance used to test each hypothesis.

In the two and four year institutions of higher education, there were no differences in the faculty members' need deficiencies. This was probably due to the small sample in each college within the type of institution.

When the two and four year institutions were observed separately, they showed a significant interaction effect between the instructional components of education and business on the leadership dimensions of Persuasion, Initiating Structure, Predictive Accuracy, Integration, and Superior Orientation. This significant interaction effect probably indicates a difference in leadership styles, faculty expectations, organizational structure.

In two and four year institutions of higher education, the incongruence of perceptions of faculty members on the leadership dimension of Consideration was probably due to a difference in faculty expectations and organizational structure.

The significant interaction effect between colleges within type of institutions and the instructional components of education and business on the leadership dimension of Production Emphasis was probably due to a difference in organizational structure.

The limitations of the study should be kept in mind as having a direct influence on the results.