An investigation of perceptions of participation in decision making and satisfaction with decisions made of selected personnel in the ten community colleges in Tennessee

The purposes of this study were (1) to investigate the levels of participation for faculty, professional non-faculty, Executive/ Administrative/Management personnel and the president in decision making as perceived by faculty, professional non-faculty and Executive/ Administrative/Management personnel, (2) to examine levels of personal satisfaction with decisions made, and (3) to determine : he relationship between the perceived levels of participation for the specific groups in the decision-making process and the levels of satisfaction expressed with the decisions made. Six policy areas of decision making were addressed in this study: curriculum and instruction, finance and business management, personnel, student personnel, physical plant, and college-community relations.

A questionnaire was developed to collect the data for the study from a random sample of faculty and all professional non-faculty and E/A/M personnel in the ten community colleges in Tennessee. A 63 percent usable return rate was received from the respondents. Mean levels of participation and satisfaction were calculated from the data. . One-way analyses of variance were performed among groups for mean differences in perceptions of participation in decision making and levels of satisfaction with decisions made. If the F ratio indicated a significant difference in the sample means of the one-way analysis of variance, then a posteriori test (Scheffe) was utilized to identify the difference.

A Pearson Product Moment correlation was used to test the relationship between participation and satisfaction in decision making.

The findings of the study indicated that E/A/M personnel and presidents had the highest levels of participation in the decision-making process and the highest levels of satisfaction with decisions made. Faculty were perceived by E/A/M personnel to have much higher levels of participation than faculty perceived themselves to have. Professional non-faculty were perceived by all three reference groups to have relatively little participation in decision making in the six policy areas. The levels of satisfaction for all three of the reference groups in each of the six policy areas were above the median level on the scale.

There was a significant relationship between the levels of participation for faculty in all six policy areas and for professional non-faculty in four of the policy areas. For E/A/M personnel there were no significant relationships between the levels of participation in the decision-making process and satisfaction with the decisions made.

Because E/A/M personnel and presidents were perceived by all three reference groups to have the highest levels of participation in the decision-making process, it was concluded that these two groups were very powerful within the community colleges in Tennessee and recommended that careful consideration be given in the selection of these personnel.

Since there was a discrepancy between the perception of E/A/M personnel and faculty regarding the level of participation of faculty in decision making, it was recommended that communication processes be improved so that confusion regarding the role of faculty members in decision making be reduced.