Development of a managerial and leadership audit questionnaire for community colleges

America's community colleges are comprehensive educational institutions offering remedial, vocational, transfer and general education to local areas. They are also institutions confronted with funding cutbacks and increasing enrollments, forcing them to do more with less, or limit student access. In an effort to be more efficient and effective, community colleges need an assessment tool that will allow them to determine areas needing improvement. The purpose of this study was to develop and assess the validity of statements regarding management and leadership behaviors to be included on an assessment instrument targeted toward community colleges.; Following the 1992 work of J. Murry, statements were developed through a thorough review of the literature related to common quality management practices and behaviors. Next, the statements were subjected to three iterative rounds of a modified Delphi study using community college presidents as panel experts. Thirty five presidents selected in a stratified, random sample provided data for the study. The initial instrument contained 88 statements in ten management and leadership categories. It evolved into 103 statements due to input provided by panel experts.; Major findings of the study included: (1) There is a need to assess the management and leadership behaviors in community colleges. (2) The panel of community college presidents reached at least a 76% consensus level on all statements presented to in the final instrument.; The researcher concluded that: (1) The literature review and Delphi study consensus levels met the requirements of face and content validity for the statements included in the instrument. (2) Community colleges need an assessment tool targeted to their management situation. (3) Behavioral audits are appropriate for community colleges. (4) Further study must be conducted to determine the construct validity of the statements on the instrument. (5) Further study must be conducted to determine the reliability of the developed instrument.