ANALYSIS OF FACULTY PERCEPTIONS OF DEANS' LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE IN BACCALAUREATE SCHOOLS OF NURSING.
Contributors: University of Cincinnati.
Published: 1984
Number of pages: 124
Subjects: Education, Administration.
Description: The purpose of this study was to analyze how faculty perceptions of deans' leadership behaviors relate to the organizational climate of baccalaureate schools of nursing. The theoretical framework was a model derived from social systems theory specifically for educational administration by Getzels and Guba (1957). The null hypothesis stating "there is no statistically significant relationship between faculty perceptions of deans' instrumental, supportive, and participatory leadership behaviors and consideration, intimacy, disengagement, and production emphasis dimensions of the organizational climate of the college" was rejected. Educational preparation and faculty size were considered as intervening variables.

Data were collected from full-time nursing faculty in 86 randomly selected National League for Nursing accredited baccalaureate colleges in 32 states. Eight hundred two subjects' responses to a research instrument composed of House's Leader Behavior Scale (LBS) and Borrevik's Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire-Higher Education (Partial) O□CDQ-HE (Partial) □were analyzed.

Factor analysis of the tools revealed the loading of participatory and supportive leadership behaviors on a single factor and the loading of intimacy and disengagement dimensions of organizational climate on a single factor. Canonical correlation was used to test the null hypothesis on seven variables: participatory/supportive leadership behavior, instrumental leadership behavior, educational preparation, faculty size, organizational climate-consideration, organizational climate-intimacy disengagement, and organizational climate-production emphasis. A significant relationship at the .01 level was discovered between participatory/supportive leadership behavior and organizational climate-consideration, and between instrumental leadership behavior and organizational climate-production emphasis. Leadership behaviors accounted for 42.5 percent of the variance in organizational climate.

This ex post facto research was limited by the need to use a questionnaire and describes only the perceptions of baccalaureate nursing faculty. Results indicated a normal distribution of perceived leadership behaviors among deans and climates that ranged from open to closed.

Deans may wish to examine their leadership behaviors, especially since other research has linked organizational climate to job satisfaction and student achievement. Faculty members may want to consider the extent to which they find deans' leadership behaviors constructive and the relative importance they attach to their relationships with each other.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, Section: A, page: 1586.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI, 1984.

School code: 0045.