The Relationship Among Selected Variables Influencing Decision Making in the Roles of Public Community College Academic Deans
type: CreativeWork
description: Problem. Much descriptive research has been undertaken on the academic dean's role which has been determined by the perceptions of significant others. Since the dean has had several categories of prescribed roles, scholars have tended to emphasize these roles and approach administrator-preparation from a prescriptive basis. This approach, though useful, ignores a crucial dimension--the variables, forces, or stimuli that impinge upon and influence the dean in his/her decision-making areas. An underlying issue that has been largely ignored is the relationship of environmental forces or stimuli and decision making areas--it has been unclear what relationship exists between decision making and the environment. An internal and an external dimension were suggested as categories under which several internal and external variables were grouped. The purpose of the study was to define and analyze the relationship among selected variables which influenced decision making in the academic dean's perception of his/her role in public community colleges in the states of Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, and California. Methods. There were nine roles or decision-making areas, and eight internal-external variables or stimuli. Responses were elicited by presenting the internal-external variables as stimuli (that is, each respondent considered the internal-external variables when asked to judge how crucial were the stimuli in influencing decisions within particular roles). Responses were categorically scaled and values assigned for each of the internal-external roles over the nine roles. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the relative ranks of the internal-external variables for each role to determine whether they were statistically and significantly different. Scale values for each role were inspected and the highest cluster in each role selected as indicative of the relative importance for that role. Kendall's coefficient of concordance, W, was used to estimate the consistency o…
abstract: Problem. Much descriptive research has been undertaken on the academic dean's role which has been determined by the perceptions of significant others. Since the dean has had several categories of prescribed roles, scholars have tended to emphasize these roles and approach administrator-preparation from a prescriptive basis. This approach, though useful, ignores a crucial dimension--the variables, forces, or stimuli that impinge upon and influence the dean in his/her decision-making areas. An underlying issue that has been largely ignored is the relationship of environmental forces or stimuli and decision making areas--it has been unclear what relationship exists between decision making and the environment. An internal and an external dimension were suggested as categories under which several internal and external variables were grouped. The purpose of the study was to define and analyze the relationship among selected variables which influenced decision making in the academic dean's perception of his/her role in public community colleges in the states of Michigan, Illinois, Kentucky, and California. Methods. There were nine roles or decision-making areas, and eight internal-external variables or stimuli. Responses were elicited by presenting the internal-external variables as stimuli (that is, each respondent considered the internal-external variables when asked to judge how crucial were the stimuli in influencing decisions within particular roles). Responses were categorically scaled and values assigned for each of the internal-external roles over the nine roles. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the relative ranks of the internal-external variables for each role to determine whether they were statistically and significantly different. Scale values for each role were inspected and the highest cluster in each role selected as indicative of the relative importance for that role. Kendall's coefficient of concordance, W, was used to estimate the consistency o…
author: Lashley, Sylvan Alphonso
keywords: Community College Education Administration, Education
date published: 1981-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:54:11Z
provider: Andrews University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Andrews University