Goal congruence in four church-related colleges

Purpose. The purposes of the study were: (1) to determine the degree of congruence between faculty members and administrators of selected United Methodist colleges with respect to the perceived and preferred importance given to ninety goal statements contained in the Institutional Goals Inventory; (2) to determine the degree of congruence within each of these groups with respect to the perceived and preferred importance given to the ninety goal statements; (3) to observe whether higher goal congruence existed in the colleges with stable or increasing enrollments; and (4) to observe agreements and differences in the goal structures of the four colleges.

Procedures. The study was conducted by sending Institutional Goals Inventory booklets to all full-time faculty members, presidents, academic deans, directors of development, deans of students, and business managers of four United Methodist colleges. The colleges were selected on the basis of enrollment patterns. Two of the institutions were selected because their enrollments had remained steady or had increased in recent years; the other two were selected because their enrollments had been declining in recent years. bThe questionnaire was distributed to a total population of 233 in the four institutions and was returned by l28 respondents.

As the booklets were returned, the ninety goal statements contained in the Institutional Goals Inventory were divided into twenty goal areas, and a mean score was calculated for faculty members and administrators for each goal area on both perceived iv

and preferred goals. The mean scores were then used to rank goal areas as perceived and preferred by faculty members and administrators, and the Spearman Rank-Order Correlation Coefficient test was applied. The .05 level of significance was used. In addition, discrepancies of five or more ranks on individual goal areas were noted.

Results. An analysis of the data indicated that administrators and faculty members were in basic agreement for both perceived and preferred goals in all four colleges. In addition, the perceived and preferred goal rankings by both administrators and faculty (within each group) were found to be congruent.

While all four colleges had significant goal congruence, both perceived and preferred, by both administrators and faculty, overall, there were fewer discrepancies on individual goal areas at the two institutions with stable enrollments (12 discrepancies) than at the two institutions with declining enrollments (33 discrepancies). Perceived goals for faculty and administrators (1 discrepancy for institutions with stable enrollments and 9 discrepancies for institutions with declining enrollments) and preferred goals for faculty (2 discrepancies for institutions with stable enrollments and l2 discrepancies for institutions with declining enrollments) accounted for most of the difference.

Administrators at the two institutions with stable enrollments agreed in giving Accountability/Efficiency much higher priority as a preferred goal than did their counterparts at the other two institutions. In addition, faculty members at the two

vi institutions with stable enrollments agreed in ranking Democratic Governance and Community much higher as perceived goals than did their counterparts at the other two institutions. Finally, fewer discrepancies were observed for Democratic Governance, Community, and Freedom at the two institutions with stable enrollments than at the other two institutions.

Conclusions>/u>. In general, there was adequate communication and mutual acceptance of goals by faculty members and administrators of the institutions studied. An emphasis on Accountability/ Efficiency seems related to maintaining a healthy institution. In addition, developing a consensus over the place of Freedom, Democratic Governance, and Community seems related to maintaining a healthy institution. It was noted that Traditional Religiousness, as measured by the goal statements contained in the Institutional Goals Inventory, was not a substantial part of the program of any of the colleges studied. The expectation that higher goal congruence would be observed in the colleges with stable enrollments than in the two with declining enrollments was not supported by the study.

This study served as an inquiry into the perceived and preferred importance of goal statements contained in the Institutional Goals Inventory as viewed by the professional personnel of four United Methodist colleges. As a result of the study, several recommendations were made.