Leadership behavior of deans as a determinant of faculty job satisfaction and job commitment

Abstract

Background: Faculty job satisfaction and commitment contribute to the success of academic programs of a college. The main purpose of the study was to determine the relationship of leadership behavior of the deans of nursing colleges to the job satisfaction and job commitment of the faculty members.

Methods: The study used a descriptive correlational design. Twenty deans and 100 faculty members from 20 nursing colleges in the National Capital Region, Philippines participated. Survey instruments used were the (1) modified Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire, (2) modified Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, and (3) Job Commitment Questionnaire. Leadership behavior was measured based on the “initiating structure” and “consideration” dimensions.

Results: Deans of nursing schools viewed their leadership behavior as “highly initiating” (M = 44.0, SD = 5.61) and “very highly considerate” (M = 50.1, SD = 4.99). Assessment of faculty members revealed congruent findings for the leadership dimensions of initiating structure (M = 46.6, SD = 3.83) and consideration (M = 49.9, SD = 2.66). Faculty members were generally “satisfied” (M = 4.20, SD = .25) and “committed” (M = 4.00, SD = .23) to their teaching job. Among the recently established colleges, the “initiating structure” dimension was highly positively correlated with job commitment of faculty members, r = .82, p < .05. There were no statistically significant relationships between the school classification, and the job satisfaction and job commitment of nursing faculty members.

Conclusions: Measures must be instituted to improve the “initiating structure” behavior of deans of recently established nursing schools to increase job commitment of faculty members. Other factors associated with job satisfaction and job commitment should be explored.