Date of Award

1993

Degree Name

Educational Leadership

College

College of Education and Professional Development

Type of Degree

Ed.D.

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

John Andes

Second Advisor

Carole Vickers

Third Advisor

Jack Yeager

Fourth Advisor

Hamid Chahryar

Fifth Advisor

Ermel Stepp

Abstract

The study compared social climate perceptions of allied health educational (AHE) program directors in order to discover the potential for high performance in accredited allied health educational programs. The study sought similarities, differences, and relationships in workplace social climate perceptions of program directors grouped by selected demographic characteristics.

Directors from accredited AHE programs were surveyed using the unmodified Work Environment Scale (WES) instrument. Forty null hypotheses were tested using multiple means comparison and linear regression.

WES scores showed no significant differences when compared by levels of allied health specialty, tenure status, highest degree, public or private institutional governance, and number of program degree offerings. WES scores showed the greatest number significant differences with respect to organizational structure. The strongest relationship was between WES scores and number of faculty supervised. Some WES scores differed significantly with respect to director’s gender and among types of institutions. One WES score regressed with number of years’ experience as director.

The social climate of allied health programs differed or regressed with respect to organizational characteristics more strongly than with respect to characteristics of individual program directors. Social climate differed most strongly by type of institution and by organizational structure. Academic health centers and coordinated administrative arrangement had the most favorable social climate for achieving high performance. Universities and dissociated administrative arrangements provided the least favorable social climate among accredited programs. The clarity with which directors see their roles improves with experience. Male directors perceived their director role more clearly than did females. Male directors perceived more external control on AHE than did females. Male directors perceived the physical environment as more physically comfortable than did females. Social climate of AHE directors improves with the number of AHE faculty in the academic unit. The potential for high performance AHE programs is expected to increase with more cooperation and intercommunication among program units.

Note(s)

The University of West Virginia College of Graduate Studies became the WV Graduate College in 1992 and was subsequently merged with Marshall University in 1997.

Subject(s)

Paramedical education – Social aspects – United States.

Allied health personnel – United States – Attitudes.

Download

Share

COinS