| The major purpose for this study was to determine the self-perceived leadership styles of the presidents, vice-presidents, and deans of public community and junior colleges in Texas in 1994. Administrators' choices of leadership style were also compared with personal characteristics of leaders, such as age, gender, title, number of years in current position, number of years in current institution, number of years in administration, degree earned, number of years in teaching, and number of full-time subordinates. The backgrounds of the administrators, particularly their previous experience, control over their respective budgets, size of their budgets (state, local, other, percentage of workers' compensation), and the ethnicity of leaders, were also examined. The Styles of Leadership Survey and a Demographic Information Form were used to collect the data.; This study revealed that styles 9/9 (collaborative) and 1/1 (bureaucratic) on the Styles of Leadership Survey were the dominant self-perceived leadership styles of administrators. The personal characteristics of age, gender, current position (title), number of years in current position, number of years in current institution, years of teaching, and number of subordinates were not significant factors in administrators' choice of a leadership style. However, it was found that administrators' educational level and number of years in administration were significant factors in their choice of a leadership style. The ethnicity of a disproportionate number, 65.6%, of the administrators was other than Native American, Hispanic American, African-American, Arabic American, and Asian American. Only 18.6% were Native Americans, 11.5% were African Americans, and 4.9% were Hispanic Americans. The previous background of the administrators who responded had military, civic, political, education, or business leadership experience.; The major recommendation expressed as a result of this study was in the recruitment process. It was recommended that more female administrators and new administrators who have not been in the same college for a long time be considered for employment. It was also recommended that the hiring process include more administrators of other ethnicities in order to match the growing number of faculty and students from other ethnicities. |
