The socialization of selected academic department heads at Texas A & M University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine how academic department heads learn their roles through the socialization process for this role at Texas A&M University (TAMU). The literature suggests that faculty experience in a department provides adequate orientation for this administrative position. Little, if any, reported research was found describing the processes by which an individual in a faculty role learns/adapts to ari administrative role. This exploratory study, based on a naturalistic paradigm, used an exploratory interview approach. Twenty-five academic department heads were interviewed at the main campus of TAMU in College Station, Texas. Data analysis was a content analysis approach. From participants' perceptions, the following categories emerged which described how academic department heads learn their roles through the socialization process at TAMU: human resources, prior experience, observation, printed media, professional associations, professional development activities and, trial-and-error learning. This study concluded that: Human resources were considered to be the greatest learning resource by academic department heads. Prior experiences appeared to be important. Role models were important in the department head's perceptions of the role. Overall, professional development activities appeared to provide little value as learning resources. However, close to half of the department heads, together, found professional associations and issue-specific workshops to be helpful/useful. Aggregate analysis of the reported headship roles revealed similarities in responses regarding roles, and differences in emphasis among the department heads interviewed. A majority indicated that previous faculty roles were helpful the headship role in terms of participants' understanding of what the faculty role entails and their credibility with the faculty. Headship roles perceived to be both difficult and problematic, by the greatest proportion of respondents, related to areas of finance, faculty development/evaluation and interpersonal relations. Overall, most department heads perceived no change in their perceptions when their roles changed from faculty roles to administrative roles.