Perceived leadership effectiveness among selected predominantly black women administrators and institutional variables in higher education : an exploratory study

The field study approach was used in this investigation to conduct case studies and interview sessions for purposes of analyzing and describing career paths followed by nine selected women administrators in coeducational institutions of higher learning. The research further sought to support the case studies and interview data by providing group measures of leadership effectiveness. Nine female administrators and nine groups of employees who worked over, under and around them completed the Least Preferred Coworker Scale (Lpc). Scores on interpersonal perceptions of personality attributes were obtained from the LPC. Interviews and a structured questionnaire supplemented the LPc and examined situational variables that enable the leader to exert influence. The identified measures were to provide sufficient information to analyze and describe the following: : women administrators' perceptions of career paths that have led to top-level administration in higher education, perceived leadership effectiveness of top-level women administrators, formal and informal expectations coworkers have for women leaders, a definition of an effective leader apart from sex variables, and female role models in top-level administration in higher education.

Findings emerging from the case studies and interviews indicated that the target women were predominantly Black, top-level administrators in higher education. A majority of the women administrators had worked their way up the hierarchical ladder to top-level administration. Many of the women identified maie mentors who had helped them climb to the top. The women sampled were role-breakers in the sense that they had followed the male model for moving up through the ranks, producing publications and doing consultant work. There seemed to be high competence in task-related activities among the women administrators; less emphasis was placed on competence in human relations. Most of the female administrators were "insiders" who moved up within the institution's organizational structure.

T-tests were utilized to measure statistical differences in how leaders and followers perceive their most-preferred coworker, leastpreferred coworker, themselves, their leaders, and group atmosphere. There was evidence to say that leaders who feel positive about self assess their work groups positively. Those who assess self negatively also assess their work groups negatively. Findings further showed that people tend to see themselves much in the same way as they see their most-preferred coworker. Leaders are inclined to identify with and rate themselves similar to the way they rate their immediate superiors. Contrarily, they tend to assess their work groups differently from the way they evaluate themselves. Followers also hold a different perception of self when compared with perceptions of the work group atmosphere.