Masters Theses

Date of Award

11-1992

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Food Science and Technology

Major Professor

Carol Costello

Committee Members

Youssri Allam, Wayne Quinton

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to ascertain factors which influence college and university administrators' decisions to change the management format of their food service operation. Specifically this included 1) developing a list of potential factors which could influence an administrator's decision in this area, 2) determining administrators perceived importance of the factors, 3) determining the attitudes of administrators toward contract companies and the services provided, and 4) determining if significant differences existed between attitudes toward contract companies as they related to size and type of institution (public or private).

A list of potential decisional factors was developed by both a telephone survey and a review of literature. The accumulated list was transformed into a survey instrument, pilot tested, and mailed to the research sample. After sufficient data was returned, statistical analysis was performed to determine where significant differences existed as related to the size and type of institution.

In general, administrators who had experience with contract-managed food services felt that the decisional factors that favored contractors were significantly more important than did administrators who had more experience with self-operated food service. Similarly, administrators who were more versed with contract-managed food service felt that contractors performed the subject of the decisional aspects significantly more than did administrators who were more familiar with self-operated food service. The effects the different demographic characteristics had on the decisional factors could be attributed to the type of food service. When a factor was significantly different, it was found that the different demographic characteristic coincided with the administrators' preference for either contract-managed or self-operated food service. This relationship was true for current managerial format, preferred managerial format, and enrollment size. I n essence, the ratings for importance o f and compliance with the relevant decisional factors were a function of the administrator's most familiar managerial format.

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