The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the Staff and Program Development Coordinators's position in Florida's public community colleges. The SPD program and the Coordinator's position were created in 1968 by the Florida Legislature in response to the need for colleges to provide staff training and program development for the dramatic growth they were experiencing. / The specific questions which the study attempted to answer were: (1) What are the characteristics of the SPD Coordinator's position and the individuals who occupy this position? (2) What are the SPD Coordinators' and their supervisors' perceptions of the actual tasks performed by the Coordinator and do they agree? (3) What are the SPD Coordinators' and their supervisors' expectations for the tasks that the Coordinator ideally should perform and do they agree? (4) Is there any relationship between actual tasks performed and the tasks that should ideally be performed as perceived by SPD Coordinators and by the Coordinator's supervisor? / To fulfill the purpose of this study, a questionnaire was developed, tested and mailed to the 28 SPD Coordinators and their supervisors. The questionnaire gathered data about (1) the characteristics of the SPD position and the current Coordinators, (2) the actual tasks performed by the Coordinator as perceived by the Coordinator and his supervisor and (3) the tasks the Coordinator ideally should perform as expected by the Coordinator and his supervisor. Questionnaires were returned by all 28 of the Coordinators and by 24 of the supervisors. / The data collected which related to the actual and ideal tasks of the Coordinator were statistically analyzed using the Student's t-Test and the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient Test. Questionnaire items were classified using a concordance of agreement into three categories: proactive (providing leadership tasks), reactive (responding to leadership tasks) and administrative (day-to-day routine tasks). The .05 level of significance was used. / The findings related to the characteristics of Coordinators showed that most Coordinators possess common personal and educational characteristics, that they have had little formal training for this position, that they are part-time and that they were promoted from within the college. / The findings related to the characteristics of the SPD position showed that except in small colleges, there is no relationship between the size of the college and the percent of time spent on SPD, that the Coordinator reports to a high ranking official in the college, that the Coordinator lacks institutional direction for his role and that Coordinators perform their tasks in conjunction with several college staff. / The findings related to the actual and ideal tasks showed that Coordinators perceived that they most often performed proactive tasks and least often performed reactive tasks, that supervisors expected proactive tasks were ideally the most important for the Coordinator to perform and that each group perceived a high relationship between what the Coordinator actually does and ideally should do. / The conclusions drawn from the findings included (1) SPD programs shared common characteristics and the Coordinators possessed reasonably uniform characteristics, (2) Coordinators and their supervisors did not agree on the relative emphasis of the actual tasks performed by the Coordinator, (3) Coordinators and their supervisors did not agree on the relative importance of the ideal tasks which the Coordinator should perform and (4) each group perceived that the actual tasks performed were closely related to the expected ideal tasks. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: A, page: 0914. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_74117 |
| Contributors | GARDNER, WALLACE AUBREY., The Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 127 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
Page generated in 0.0709 seconds