ANALYSIS OF STATUS-RISK AND PERSONALITY EXPLANATIONS OF NURSING FACULTY RESISTANCE TO INNOVATION (RECEPTIVITY, EDUCATIONAL CHARGE).
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1986
Number of pages: 185
Subjects: Education, Administration.
Description: The purpose of this study was to analyze two explanations of nursing faculty resistance to innovation. This research explored the relationship between selected status variables, personality variables, and receptivity to innovation and the relationship between perceived risk, threat to job perquisites and receptivity to innovation. A correlational survey research design was utilized.

Two explanations of resistance to innovation guided the development of the conceptual framework and design of this research. One explanation is psychologically based and purports that organizational members' receptivity to change is a function of their personalities. A second explanation of resistance/receptivity is of sociological origin and conceived as a status-risk model of receptivity which suggests that all innovations contain varying degrees of benefits and risks and receptivity to an innovation is a function of the extent to which he perceives risks to his statuses were the innovation to become a reality.

Data collection instruments for this study included semantic differentials measuring receptivity and perceived risk for the three innovations selected for inclusion in this study, the Threat to Job Perquisites Scale, the short form of the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale (1965), the Dye Local-Cosmopolitan Scale (1963) and the Trumbo Work-Related Change Scale (1961). Demographic data were obtained to provide information on status variables.

Data were obtained from 301 nurse educators through a stratified, random sampling of all faculty ranks in public nursing programs in the Southern region of the United States offering master's degree programs accredited by the National League for Nursing that met eligibility requirements for the study.

Overall findings indicate that status variables account for the most variance in explaining receptivity to innovation. Perceived risk was found to be the greatest contributor to explaining receptivity for all three innovations with r-squares ranging from 51 percent to 59.5 percent. A larger number of status variables than personality variables were significantly related to receptivity to innovation.

Examination of the intercorrelations between receptivity scores to each innovation, although significant, were low and in line with status-risk reasoning. Significant relationships were found between threat to job perquisites, perceived risk and receptivity to innovation.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-05, Section: A, page: 1549.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1986.

School code: 0227.