NURSING DEPARTMENT CHAIRPERSONS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE INFLUENCE OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AND THEIR OWN INFLUENCE ON SELECTED MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS.
Contributors: Peabody College For Teachers Of Vanderbilt University.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 75
Subjects: Education, Higher.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations.
Description: The purpose of this study was to examine nursing department chairpersons' perceptions of the amount of influence currently exerted by the chairperson and by collective bargaining on selected managerial functions. The subjects were 60 nursing department chairpersons on campuses with collective bargaining during the spring of 1987. The chairpersons were surveyed using the Whitson Questionnaire (Whitson, 1979). The questionnaire was developed to analyzes constraints on five broad managerial functions of the department chairpersons. Results were examined using differences scores.

Respondents were asked to evaluate the relative influence of the department head on managerial functions and also to evaluate the relative influence of collective bargaining on the same managerial functions. The dependent variables of the study were five managerial functions: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and evaluating. The independent variables were: (a) the size of the department, (b) the method of department head selection, (c) the number of years in the position of chairperson, and (d) the collective bargaining status of the chairperson.

Difference scores were calculated by subtracting the collective bargaining score from the department head score. Although the differences were not statistically significant, positive scores throughout the study indicated that nursing department chairpersons agreed that they had more influence than collective bargaining on the selected managerial functions. Chairpersons, regardless of union status, appointment process, years in the position of chairperson, or size of the department perceived that they had a greater amount of influence than that of collective bargaining on the managerial functions. There was one significant difference found in the study. Chairpersons who were not members of unions perceived their influence to be even greater than chairpersons who were members of unions on the managerial function of directing.

The primary conclusion of this study was that nursing department chairpersons on campuses with collective bargaining tend to agree that they have a greater amount of influence on the five managerial functions than the influence of collective bargaining. As a result of this study data are now available on the influence of collective bargaining on managerial functions as perceived by nursing department chairpersons.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-04, Section: A, page: 1130.

Thesis (ED.D.)--PEABODY COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS OF VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, 1989.

School code: 0074.