Abstract
The primary purpose of this study was to characterize selected aspects of educational organizations using an electronic bulletin board service in order to determine those factors relevant to growth and development in the utilization of that technology in the educational environment. This study developed a classification scheme which can be used to independently evaluate whether or not an educational organization has demonstrated growth and development in the use of an electronic bulletin board. The study identified important organizational characteristics present in educational organizations demonstrating evidence of growth and development in the administrative use of this technology. A second purpose of this study was to identify significant relationships between organizational factors and the presence of growth and development in the administrative use of an electronic bulletin board among a variety of school districts in Texas that were utilizing this innovation at the time the study was conducted. The following six categories of organizational characteristics were constructed based on the literature review: (1) Organizational structure. (2) Degree of fit between organizational purpose and the electronic bulletin board technology. (3) Organizational attitudes towards innovation and specifically towards electronic bulletin boards. (4) Accessibility to the electronic bulletin board by organizational members. (5) Characteristics of the organizational members who use the service. (6) Perceived cost effectiveness of the electronic bulletin board. A survey instrument was mailed to 100 public school organizations in Texas (from a population of those public school organizations participating in an electronic bulletin board service called The Electric Pages) which attempted to find the significance of these organizational categories to successful growth and development in the utilization of this technology in the educational administration environment. The results indicated that five of the six organizational categories identified were found significantly related to the presence of growth and development in the utilization of electronic bulletin boards. Organizational structure was not found to be significantly related to growth and development.
Kelly, John Patrick (1987). An analysis of selected organizational factors associated with the use of electronic bulletin boards in educational administration environments. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -754134.