Date of Award

Fall 12-1-2004

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

John Moore

Second Advisor

Steve Gruenert

Third Advisor

Joanne Burrows

Abstract

Scholars disagree about the importance of a leader's longevity. The inconsistency in the findings of previous research makes it necessary to understand more fully the dynamics between presidential leadership and institutional culture. More specifically, there is a need to actually measure and describe the relationships among presidential longevity, presidential leadership style, and institutional culture. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between the leadership styles of Catholic college and university presidents and the congruence between leadership style and culture type relative to presidential longevity. This study also identifies dominant culture types and leadership styles that accompany congruence. Additionally, this study explores the relationship between presidential longevity and congruence. Through the use of non-experimental cross-sectional analyses, this study employed Cameron's Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to examine relationships among presidential leadership, organizational culture, and presidential longevity at Catholic colleges and universities. A representative sample of 121 Catholic colleges and universities was selected using institutional data collected from several national databases. A dominant cohort consisting of the president, chief officers, and, in research universities, selected deans, was sampled in order to assess each institution's culture type and presidential leadership style. Data were analyzed by using frequency distributions for descriptive purposes, and by using chi-square tests of independence for evaluating relationships. Leadership style appears to be more significant to institutional congruence than either presidential longevity or institutional culture type. Specifically, the results of this study indicate that the more important contributor to cultural congruence may be the willingness of the president to exercise flexibility in responding both to internal and external environmental forces. Further study is needed before confidently asserting a positive relationship between cultural congruence and presidential longevity in Catholic colleges and universities. Questions also remain about how the institution's culture may or may not contribute to congruence.

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