The purpose of this study is to explore, identify and describe organizational opportunity through the thoughts, perceptions and experiences of women who are currently mid-level administrators in higher education organizational settings. The idea of organizational opportunity provides the basis of the study, and the tenets of the "new scholarship on women and education" which incorporates a feminist perspective provides the framework for the study's design and methodology. The participants were invited to take part in the study, and the sample was drawn from individual member listings of the current directories of three higher education associations. The participants are women mid-level administrators in selected public, state-supported universities in California with the functional title: Dean of Students (when not identified as the chief student affairs officer), Director of Housing or Residential Education, and Director of Student Activities or College Union. Qualitative research methods were used in collecting the data through the use of a guided, open ended, in-depth interview with the participants. The study's research questions focus on: (1) how women in higher education administration describe organizational opportunity; (2) what organizational opportunities women in higher education administration describe as needing to develop professionally; (3) how women in higher education administration create organizational opportunity; and (4) what conditions women in higher education administration describe that increase and diminish organizational opportunity for their development. The analysis of the data reveals five major frameworks of the concept of organizational opportunity: (1) Organizational Context; (2) Creating Opportunity; (3) Organizational Access; (4) Organizational Support Through Mentors, and (5) Personal Factors Affecting Organizational Opportunity. A discussion of each frame is presented as well as the participant's advice to women interested in a career in higher education administration.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-4916 |
| Date | 01 January 1992 |
| Creators | Holliday, Gay |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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