Faculty involvement in shared governance and decision making: A case study

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact that faculty involvement in shared governance at a mid-Atlantic, multi-campus community college has on the administrative decisions made within that community college. This qualitative, case study research design used structured interviews to gather data from six informants who were community college administrators at a multi-campus, urban community college in the mid-Atlantic region. The informants were asked questions that would reveal their perceptions of faculty involvement in shared governance and decision making. The researcher used manifest and latent coding to reveal the key themes of each interview.; The findings revealed that administrators at the college under investigation demonstrated high and consistent openness, collaboration, and shared authority with their faculty in decision making. However, trust and honesty were the two areas the findings revealed needed further development between the administration and the faculty. The study revealed that faculty involvement in shared governance may improve relationships between administration and faculty, but faculty involvement in shared governance did not impact major decisions at the college under investigation. The study also revealed that the administration and faculty at the college under investigation are experiencing challenges in trusting each other; trust is especially challenging between the academic leadership and the faculty. The third major conclusion revealed by the study concerns the theme of honesty. Based on the evidence of the study, honesty was not present in any discernable way at the institution under investigation. Hence, shared governance and decision making may continue to be a challenge at the college under investigation.