Nurse Educators' Perceptions Regarding Faculty Participation in University Governance

Abstract

Faculty participation in university governance is an accepted norm in American higher education. Nurse educators' participation in university governance provides opportunities to exert influence in organizational matters in order to maintain quality programs and serve the needs of society. The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify nurse educators' perceptions of faculty participation in university governance. A Faculty Participation Survey and Personal Data Questionnaire were completed by 401 nurse educators employed as full-time faculty in 13 Category I and 37 Category II institutions offering baccalaureate or higher degree nursing programs located within the Southern Regional Education Board. Data analysis techniques included descriptive statistics, principal components analysis, t-tests, and one way analyses of variance. Nurse educators' perceptions regarding faculty participation in university governance were reduced to eight factors. Respondents held no strong opinions about the factors underlying their perceptions regarding faculty participation in university governance. No statistical differences were found in nurse educators' perceptions according to the factors when institutional category was considered. Statistical significance $(p<.05)$ was found for Factor 2: Participation when age and tenure status were considered; Factor 7: Motivations when age was considered; and Factor 8: Groups when academic rank was considered. Implications for nursing education and research were generated. Recommendations included further testing of the eight factors identified in this study using different data gathering instruments and methodologies, using national samples of nursing faculty subjects, particularly within one institutional category, and controlling for institutional variables such as organizational structure and administrative leadership styles. Additional recommendations were to investigate differences between nurse educators' and administrations' perceptions of faculty participation in university governance and between nurse educators' perceptions and those of faculty in other disciplines; to compare actual versus perceived levels of participation in university governance; and to identify other factors which enhance or impede nurse educators' participation in university governance.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 9312959; ProQuest document ID: 303997477. The author still retains copyright.

Authors

Janet J. Gross

Author Details

Dr. Janet J. Gross, DSN

Sigma Membership

Nu Alpha

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Other

Research Approach

Quantitative Research

Keywords:

Nurse Faculty, Faculty Participation, University Governance

Advisors

Mikan, Kathleen

Degree

Doctoral-Other

Degree Grantor

The University of Alabama at Birmingham

Degree Year

1992

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2019-12-09

Full Text of Presentation

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