A study of the comparative behavioral patterns of financial and academic administrators and their managerial effectiveness in selected medical schools in the state of Tennessee

Two medical schools were used to carry out this investigation. The academic administrators selected for this study included the chairmen of the departments of Internal Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, and Psychiatry. The financial administrators included the supervisor of the departments of Accounts Payable, Budget Directors, Controllers and Bureaus.

The two data gathering instruments used in the study were the Administrative Skills Rating Form (ASRF) to measure the administrator's level of effectiveness on several performance variables, and the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) to obtain a description of the administrator's behavioral patterns.

The three broad hypotheses tested were:

1. There is no difference in the managerial effectiveness of academic and financial administrators in medical schools.

2. There is no difference in the leader behavior patterns of academic and financial administrators in medical schools.

3. There is a positive relationship between leader behavior patterns and the effectiveness of administrative (managerial) functions. When examining the differences of effectiveness in the performance of administrative functions of academic and financial administrators in medical schools it was found that academic administrators were evaluated more positively by their superiors than were financial administrators, even though both groups were considered effecitve.

The data showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the behavioral patterns of academic and financial administrators in medical schools. The Pearson Product Moment correlation coefficient (r) was used to determine if a relationship existed between behavior and effectiveness of academic and financial leaders in medical schools. The finding was that there was no significant relationship between behavior and effectiveness.

The findings of this study suggest that there is not enough evidence to support the contention that financial administrators can be equally as effective in the performance of administrative functions of academic administrators in medical schools. Therefore, it was concluded that the existing patterns of carrying out administrative functions by academic administrators in medical schools are effective ways of operating these institutions.