Date of Graduation

2005

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the espoused leadership frame of chairpersons of Biology departments and English departments in baccalaureate colleges with those of chairpersons of the same departments of master's colleges located in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Leadership frames were compared by disciplines, by institutional categories (Carnegie Foundation, 2000), by department size, by length of service as chairperson, and by method of selection as chairperson. In addition, the study examined selected demographics (e.g., gender) to probe for intervening variables. A mailed survey instrument consisting of the 32-item Bolman and Deal Leadership Orientations (Self) instrument and a demographic questionnaire was sent to 455 chairpersons (210 from baccalaureate institutions and 245 were from master's institutions). Fourteen research questions were examined, and data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and MANOVA. An alpha level of .05 was the level of significance for inferential statistics in the study. The major findings of the study indicated that most chairs reported a single-frame style followed by a paired-frame style, no-frame style and multi-frame style, respectively. The human resource frame was the most frequently reported single frame style while none of the respondents endorsed the symbolic frame as a single frame style. With respect to combined frames, a combination of symbolic and human resource frames and the combination of all four frames were the most frequently cited. The chair's endorsement of the political leadership frame was influenced by academic discipline with English department chairs having a statistically significantly higher mean than Biology chairs. A chair's endorsement of the human resource leadership frame was influenced by institutional classification with master's department chairs having a higher mean for the human resource frame than baccalaureate department chairs. Department size affected the chair's endorsement of the structural frame and the political frame. The interaction between department size and academic discipline affected endorsement of the political leadership frame with chairs of larger English departments exhibiting a higher utilization than any other group. Female chairs demonstrated a higher utilization of the human resource frame than male chairs regardless of discipline.

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