| Abstract: | Academic departments and their chairmen have long been a part of colleges and universities. A tendency toward more centralization as a result of state and federal requirements could threaten the status and loci of power within departments. The present study seeks information on the outlook of departmental chairmen in order to provide background information on what motivates chairmen and their outlook on roles required to be played.This study, which has 1,198 responses from chairmen in 38 state universities, focuses on the perception of chairmen on where major decisions are made (university, college, or departmental level), characteristics of departments by academic field, and selected personal attributes of chairmen. The implication is made that goals, duties, and satisfactions of chairmen should be given serious attention before the institution responds to external or internal pressures to restrict the decision-making process. |
