Award Date

12-1-2012

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Psychology & Higher Education

First Committee Member

Mario Martinez

Second Committee Member

Vicki Rosser

Third Committee Member

Robert Ackerman

Fourth Committee Member

Daniel McLean

Number of Pages

213

Abstract

Career service directors lead the third most common division within student affairs departments, but the leadership of a collegiate career services office has not been represented in higher education research. Obtaining a "good job" has consistently been noted as a main reason to attend college (Pryor, Hurtado, Saenz, Santos & Korn, 2007). The rising costs of higher education have also yielded the question, "What can college do for me?" financially and with future career opportunities (Baum & Payea, 2005; Moretti, 2004; Pryor, Hurtado, Saenz, Santos & Korn, 2007; Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2009). The functions of career services staff are at the center of addressing these expectations.

This nationwide study examined the leadership orientations and effectiveness of college and university career service directors by obtaining responses from: (1) the Bolman and Deal (1984, 1991, 2008) Leadership Orientations Survey, (2) a created career services effectiveness measure rooted in standards from the National Association of Colleges and Employers and the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education, and (3) a background questionnaire. Human resources was widely reported as a top leadership orientation. However, regression analysis revealed that three leadership orientations (human resources, political, and symbolic) explained effectiveness, along with experience in career services at any level and as a director, and resource adequacy to carry out the director's job.

Keywords

Career development – Information services; Career services; College students; Educational leadership; Effectiveness; Leadership; Student affairs administrators; Vocational guidance

Disciplines

Educational Leadership | Higher Education Administration

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


Share

COinS