Student affairs administrators' university relationships: a study of language usage in departmental meetings

Abstract

Investigations into cultural aspects of organizations offers promising improvements to understanding those organizations, and to the field of organizational development. The study of figurative language usage provides revealing analogs to the culture, represented through attitudes, values, beliefs, and assumptions. Organizational meetings of four units of a division of student affairs at a large state university were observed over a period of eight weeks using a naturalistic research design (Lincoln, 1985) to collect qualitative data about language usage. Data analysis was inductive and was reported as case studies of the unit meetings. Findings of the study revealed several perceptions of dominant relationships viewed by student affairs professionals as crucial to their work. These relationships were described using the metaphors of "family" and "servant," t which revealed important cultural themes of the student affairs division of the university. This research provided insights into student affairs culture, valuable data for student affairs practitioners, and further evidence for the usefulness of emergent research methodologies.