A Study of the Organizational Effectiveness of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges
type: CreativeWork
description: The purpose of this research was to study the effectiveness of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. The four major objectives were: describe the historical development of the Senate; determine the effectiveness of the methods by which the Senate provides for community college faculty to participate in academic and professional governance; determine the effectiveness of the Senate, as understood by the membership and others with whom it interacts, in meeting the purpose and goals which the organization and relevant others have established for it; and, interpret the impact of the Senate on its environment. The method of study was naturalistic and included: (1) Participant Observation, centering on accreditation issues; (2) Questionnaires, distributed to three groups (faculty-- 46%, senate presidents-- 70%, college president-- 70%); (3) Interviews, elite and informal, conducted with individuals who had special knowledge about the Senate; (4) Paradigm (three), developed as a perspective for data analysis, based on organizational effectiveness behavior, which are conceptually discrete but empirically related, were used to frame and integrate the analysis. The findings indicated the Senate history has been influenced by legislative and cultural/social events, as well as California economy. Historically, the senate participated in shared governance and collegial activities in numerous ways. The data analysis revealed that, in general, the Senate was viewed as less effective by the faculty and college presidents, and most effective by senate presidents and interview respondents. Questionnaire respondents were requested to provide an overall effectiveness evaluation of the Senate. The faculty thought the Senate Moderately Effective while the senate and college presidents considered it Effective. When the effectiveness behavior characteristics of the paradigm were juxtaposed against Senate behavior, characteristics of all three paradigm were often demonstrat…
abstract: The purpose of this research was to study the effectiveness of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. The four major objectives were: describe the historical development of the Senate; determine the effectiveness of the methods by which the Senate provides for community college faculty to participate in academic and professional governance; determine the effectiveness of the Senate, as understood by the membership and others with whom it interacts, in meeting the purpose and goals which the organization and relevant others have established for it; and, interpret the impact of the Senate on its environment. The method of study was naturalistic and included: (1) Participant Observation, centering on accreditation issues; (2) Questionnaires, distributed to three groups (faculty-- 46%, senate presidents-- 70%, college president-- 70%); (3) Interviews, elite and informal, conducted with individuals who had special knowledge about the Senate; (4) Paradigm (three), developed as a perspective for data analysis, based on organizational effectiveness behavior, which are conceptually discrete but empirically related, were used to frame and integrate the analysis. The findings indicated the Senate history has been influenced by legislative and cultural/social events, as well as California economy. Historically, the senate participated in shared governance and collegial activities in numerous ways. The data analysis revealed that, in general, the Senate was viewed as less effective by the faculty and college presidents, and most effective by senate presidents and interview respondents. Questionnaire respondents were requested to provide an overall effectiveness evaluation of the Senate. The faculty thought the Senate Moderately Effective while the senate and college presidents considered it Effective. When the effectiveness behavior characteristics of the paradigm were juxtaposed against Senate behavior, characteristics of all three paradigm were often demonstrat…
author: Prentiss, Gail, EdD
keywords: academic senate, California, community colleges, higher education, organizational effectiveness, Leadership Studies
date published: 1983-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:41:49Z
provider: University of San Diego
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of San Diego