Date of Award

2007

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

College

College of Education

Type of Degree

Ed.D.

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

Dennis M. Anderson

Second Advisor

Stephen Cupps

Third Advisor

Barbara L. Nicholson

Abstract

Community colleges are purported to be in the midst of a leadership crisis due to the impending retirements of chief executive officers (CEOs) and senior administrators over the next several years. Concurrently, the demands upon CEOs to effectively and efficiently manage their institutions are more critical now in an effort to balance the demands placed upon them by public policy and institutional stakeholders. The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of institutional context, governance and organizational structures, on the frequency with which CEOs utilized certain management skills. The study population was community college CEOs as identified by membership in the American Association of Community Colleges. Levels of each independent factor were identified though literature review and constituted a myriad of organizational and governance structures indicative of community colleges across the nation. Twenty-five management skills performed by CEOs were also identified through literature review, and, as the dependent factors, were measured on an anchored six-point rating scale. Comparative analysis on responses (n = 468) to the author-developed questionnaire was performed using multivariate analysis of variance at p < .05. Significant differences sufficient to address the research questions were not found. Ancillary analysis of respondents’ comments suggests context, as defined by this study’s variables, does have influence on the management skills used by CEOs.

Subject(s)

Community colleges - Administration.

Leadership.

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