Date of Graduation

2000

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between the leadership frames of nursing chairpersons and the organizational climate of nursing departments as perceived by the nursing faculty. Bolman and Deal's Leadership Orientations Instrument (Other), Borrevik's Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire-Higher Education (Partial), and a demographic questionnaire were sent to 605 nursing faculty members in 60 baccalaureate nursing programs in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing North Atlantic Region. A total of 253 usable responses was returned. Descriptive procedures, Pearson's product moment correlation coefficients, one-way analysis of variance, and the General Linear Models Procedure for analysis of variance were used to analyze the data with respect to the research questions in this study. Findings indicated that faculty members perceived their chairpersons to use the human resource frame the most followed by the structural frame, the symbolic frame, and the political frame. Statistically significant relationships were demonstrated between single frame nursing chairperson leadership styles and organizational climate domains and between the various combinations of leadership frames of nursing chairpersons and organizational climate domains. Nine low, but statistically significant correlations were found between chairperson leadership frames, organizational climate domains, and selected demographic variables. A nursing faculty shortage presently exists. Schools recognized as having a good organizational climate will have less difficulty finding faculty. No nursing research has been done using Bolman and Deal's leadership frames. This study has implications for nursing education as the results demonstrated that the organizational climate of the nursing department is affected by the leadership style of the department chairperson.

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