A Comparative Study of Hospital Administrators in Saskatchewan with Various Levels of Education
Date
1977
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to determine what influence
levels of education had on the leadership behavior of hospital administrators
in the Province of Saskatchewan. One of the contributing
factors of an occupational group becoming more professionalized involves
increased levels of education. The levels of education range'from
apprenticeship to Hnon-credit" continuing education to certificate
programs to undergraduate degrees and finally to graduate degrees. For
the purpose of this study, the apprenticeship and continuing education
categories were combined as were the undergraduate and graduate
categories.
The leadership behavior of the hospital administrators was
assessed by department heads reporting to the administrators. In small
hospitals where department heads do not exist, the staff reporting
directly to the administrator were utilized to assess leadership
behavior.
The study was limited to the leadership behavior of administrators
of acute short-term care hospitals in the Province of Saskatchewan.
Assistant hospital administrators were also included in the study to
increase the size of the population. The study involved a total
population survey.
Leadership behavior was broken down into the leadership dimensions
of Consideration, Initiating Structure, Innovation and Executive
Professional Leadership. The Consideration and Initiating Structure
dimensions were measured by the Halpin and Winer's (1957) Leader
Behavior Description Questionnaire consisting of forty questions. Six
questions were added to assess the dimension of Innovation. An
additional six questions were added to determine Executive Professional
Leadership.
The study also examined the effect of personal and non-personal
variables on leadership behavior. The personal variables consisted of
age and work experience (in the position of hospital administrator).
The non-personal variables consisted of bed size of hospital and the
number of administrative support staff (department heads).
The questionnaires and the data therein were analyzed. The
hypotheses relating to differences between the mean scores on the
leadership dimensions of Consideration, Initiating Structure and
Executive Professional Leadership for each level of education were
rejected. However, a difference did exist between the levels of
education for Innovation.
The personal variables did not correlate to leadership while
non-personal variables did correlate. This study agrees with other
studies which conclude that leadership is not a factor of personal
traits but rather is situational in nature.
The Certificate Program group of administrators had the highest
mean scores on the majority of leadership dimensions. The Certificate
Program administrators also had the highest percentage of their group
in the high Consideration, high Initiating Structure quadrant of the
Ohio State Quadrant Scheme.
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Citation
Degree
Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.)
Department
Edwards School of Business
Program
Commerce