The role of the regional director of rural development as perceived by executives and directors of the Colombian Agriculture Institute

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of directors and executives of the Colombian Agriculture Institute regarding the role of the director to determine if a need existed to develop guidelines to provide relationships between the directors and executives that will increase the effectiveness of the director. The following objectives were developed to aid in accomplishing this purpose: 1. To determine the role of the director as perceived by the directors and the executives of the Institute, 2. To determine the extent of agreement between directors and executives in regard to the perceived role of the director, 3. To determine the following background characteristics for executives and directors: (1) age, (2) educational background, (3) work experience with the Institute, and 4. To develop a list of guidelines, as needed, to enhance the effectiveness of the position of director. Procedure Mailed questionnaire responses were received form the nine directors and 60 of the 65 executives of the Institute. Analysis of the frequency distribution of the responses was used to show differences between responses and positons of the two groups: (1) directors, and (2) executives. Conclusions 1. The role of the director is generally understood by both directors and executives. Therefore, the underlying hypothesis of this study that stated that conflicts existed between directors and executives at national and regional levels in their perceived role of the director cannot be supported. The differences between responses of the two groups represented a difference in the level at which they agreed rather than disagreed. Both groups perceived the role of the director to include 38 functions stated in the questionnaire. They perceived that three statements did not describe a function of the director. 2. There are no major differences between executives and directors for the characteristics of (1) age, (2) educational background, and (3) work experience of the respondents.