Faculty job satisfaction at Illinois community colleges and the relationship with perceived presidential leadership styles

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This research examined the relationship between perceived presidential leadership styles and faculty job satisfaction in Illinois Community Colleges. Based on previous research studies in leadership and job satisfaction, two widely accepted and validated survey questionnaires were selected as main instruments for the study. An additional four demographic questions were added in the areas of tenure status, gender, length of service at the institution and level of degree attained to stratify the sample results. The Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire (LBDQ) was used to measure presidential leadership styles as perceived by the faculty. The Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) was used to measure faculty job satisfaction. The LBDQ and MSQ questionnaires, and demographic questions were uploaded into Survey Monkey and the link was sent to participants. Data on presidential leadership style and faculty job satisfaction were collected from a sample of 62 full time faculty members from 5 Illinois Community Colleges. The rate of survey return was 15%. Statistical analyses, including ANOVAs, t-tests and Pearson Correlations were performed and descriptive statistics were ran to answer the study's research questions. ANOVAs were conducted to determine whether differences and/or interactions existed in faculty job satisfaction based on perceived presidential leadership style and the faculty demographic variables of length of service and level of degree attained. T-Tests were conducted on the remaining two demographic questions of gender and tenure status. Lastly, Pearson correlations were conducted to determine the relationship between the survey results. The following conclusions were drawn from the statistical analyses. Overall job satisfaction of faculty at Illinois community colleges who responded to the study can be considered "ambivalent". There was a statistically moderate association between the two survey results, overall. The results of the Pearson correlation coefficients proved there is a relationship between