MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES IN STUDENT PERSONNEL DEPARTMENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The primary purpose of the study is to compare and contrast the relationship between goal commitment and goal use in a system of management (Management by Objectives--MBO) in student service departments in higher education to other management systems which may or may not require the same formalized approach to goal setting and use. Institutional and personal characteristics of the participants are then analyzed to determine if they have any impact on goal use.;The chi-square statistic was used to analyze the relationship between the following: (1) goal use and goal commitment; (2) goal use, goal commitment and departmental identity; (3) goal use and goal commitment in MBO, management system similar to MBO, systems dissimilar to MBO and organizations with no prescribed system of management; (4) personal and organizational characteristics and goal use.;The pairwise "t" test and pairwise rank statistic were used to measure the degree to which goal use in specific management functional areas were used over others. Those management functional areas are: planning, personnel selection, training and development, coordinating, controlling, appraising, compensating and motivating.;Based on these analyses it was concluded that goal use does occur without goal commitment as defined by the author. Management systems that are designed to have high levels of goal commitment in fact had lower goal use than organizations with no prescribed systems of management. MBO and systems similar to it showed no significant relationship between goal use and goal commitment. In contrast there was a significant relationship between the two variables and organizations with no prescribed system of management. The author concludes that perhaps the maintenance process of goal oriented systems interferes with goal attainment.;Eighty-seven (87) institutions representing all geographical regions of the U.S. were each sent five questionnaires to be completed by directors of student service divisions. Sixty-two (62) institutions responded by returning one or more questionnaires. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: (1) an information sheet which solicited personal and institutional characteristics and (2) the Management Style Questionnaire (developed by Bruce Kirchhoff--1974) to measure goal use.;Individual and institutional characteristics appear to have no impact on goal commitment or goal use.;There were significant differences in goal use among the eight management areas. The previously mentioned eight management functional areas is the rank order, from the highest to lowest used, in which participants said they use goals.