ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS AND DECANAL DECISIONS IN NURSING EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION.
Contributors: Columbia University. Teachers College.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 152
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of the study was to explore those organizational elements which influenced the decanal decision making process. The formal and informal components of organizational structure and their relationships to the decanal decision making process in generic baccalaureate schools of nursing were explored within the social systems model. This model defined institutions of higher education as formal and informal organizations which affect the behavior of members through bureaucratic expectations, group norms, and individual needs.

The conceptual framework of this study was derived from the model of organizations as social systems. It was anticipated that the findings of the study would then contribute to an increased understanding of the formal and informal systems that influence the decanal decision making process in nursing education administration.

The sample consisted of thirty doctorally prepared chief executive officers of National League for Nursing accredited baccalaureate nursing programs. The data were analyzed in keeping with concepts of Grounded Theory developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967).

The findings of the study revealed that the preponderance of participants believed that the decanal decision making process was influenced in a positive manner by the hierarchical authority structure and the organizational communication system. Their responses also identified negative influences within the hierarchical authority structure. These negative influences were related to internal and external sources which impinged on the decanal decision making process.

Internally, the negative findings related to inadequate information from members in the administrative hierarchy and to the resistance of administrative members to change. External negative influences that created conflict situations for participants derived from faculty unions, government agencies, and alumni associations. In addition, the findings revealed most significantly that participants did not identify faculty as an informal organization with the ability to influence the decanal decision making process.

The results of the study indicated that the decanal decision making process would be enhanced when nursing education administrators developed skill in utilizing institutional communication systems, recognized institutional power sources, developed positive working relationships with administration, faculty members, and those individuals in the external environment whose support is considered essential to effective decanal decision making.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-09, Section: A, page: 2575.

Thesis (ED.D.)--COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TEACHERS COLLEGE, 1985.

School code: 0055.