BEHAVIORS, ATTITUDES, SKILLS, AND KNOWLEDGE FOR SENIOR STUDENT AFFAIRS OFFICERS: PERCEPTIONS OF LEADERSHIP SUCCESS Jo Campbell A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2015 Committee: Maureen E. Wilson, Advisor William K. Balzer Graduate Faculty Representative Kenneth W. Borland Nicholas A. Bowman © 2015 Jo Campbell All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Maureen E. Wilson, Advisor Success of senior student affairs officers (SSAOs) on a college campus involves a number of critical factors set in the context of three themes: effective leadership, constant change, and a connection to the university mission and culture. These critical success factors were couched as behaviors, attitudes, skills, and knowledge (BASK) of current SSAOs. As a profession built by scholar-practitioners, it is important to understand success from the SSAOs doing the job. NASPA members and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) SSAOs known to the researcher were asked to share their point of view about which BASK factors were most important. The purpose of the current study is to assess current SSAOs’ perceptions of the importance of these BASK factors to success in their positions. The research questions asked how current SSAOs rate the importance of the BASK factors relative to one another, to what extent there are group differences in how SSAOs rate the BASK factors, and to what extent there are group differences in how SSAOs rate the order of BASK factors relative to one another. Integrity in decision making was rated as most important, and presenting sessions at professional conferences and/or submitting articles or book chapters for publication, while still important, was rated as the lowest of the BASK factors. Overall, women and people of color had higher BASK scores. A total of 50 lesbian/gay/bisexual SSAOs participated, representing over 11% of respondents; there were no differences for sexual orientation found in the rating of BASK factors. The relative ranking of BASK factors was similar regardless of SSAOs’ gender identity, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. This study marks the first time sexual orientation was included as a demographic question in published research about SSAOs. The findings provide a iv path for aspiring and new SSAOs and offer implications for practice, policy, and future research pertaining to the training of student affairs professionals. v I dedicate this research study to all the aspiring senior student affairs officers with a special nod to those whose gender identity, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity and/or other aspects of their social identity put additional challenges on their path. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The process of pursuing the doctorate in higher education administration has been a journey with many unexpected twists and turns. With the help of my faculty, classmates, colleagues, family, and friends, I have been successful in reaching this goal with much support and care along the way. My unwavering thanks go to my advisor, Dr. Maureen Wilson. From our first meeting when I expressed interest in the program, she made me feel like, if I worked hard, I could get through the program, and do it in three years or less. She helped me to frame my pursuit of the degree as an incredible professional development experience and she was confident I would do well and contribute to other students’ learning given my many years of experience. She always asked good questions about what I was trying to accomplish and how I was going to get there. When she started to get drafts of my dissertation chapters, I was amazed at the voluminous amount of feedback and grateful to have her viewpoints and suggestions. I also appreciated her willingness to hear my arguments about why I made a decision, and on occasion agreeing with my point of view. Dr. Kenneth Borland was on my committee and taught two of my courses. I learned a great deal from him and his experiences as interim president, provost, and faculty member. I have appreciated our collaborations on ACPA conference programs and look forward to many more. Dr. Nicholas Bowman was another committee member and my expert on all things quantitative. I made many trips to Nick’s office with questions and each time was amazed and awed at how quickly he formulated an answer with the data in SPSS right there on his screen. Meanwhile, I was still on step two of the 23 he just accomplished. Much gratitude to Nick as he was always willing to backtrack and explain so that I understood what just happened. Dr. William Balzer was the fourth member of my committee and was much more than my graduate faculty representative. Bill was an amazing practicum supervisor and put many of the concepts from my quality systems cognate into vii practice. I especially enjoyed watching him lead the Lean Kaizen Workshop on the faculty hiring process. I continue to be inspired by his passion for effectiveness, efficiency, and continuous improvement. I was fortunate to have classes with an amazing group of students. For the people I took most of my classes with in the first two years of the program, I cannot thank you enough for embracing me as part of the group and allowing me to learn from each of your experiences— thanks Abi Kennedy, LaDonna Moore, Phoebe Ofori-Atta, Mark Zeno, Blaire Moody Rideout, and Adam Duberstein. I offer a big thank you to Katie Stygles who read so many of my papers and offered insightful feedback. A special thanks to Beth Hoag who helped me through more projects, papers, and moments of doubt than I can name. I appreciate Beth’s APA table expertise and unwavering support and confidence in my abilities. Other students in the HIED program were very helpful too. Kristen Lindsay shared many documents and her insight on the dissertation process for which I am thankful. Michael Mastalski and Ardy Gonyer helped me go through the long list of NASPA member schools to cull out the contact information for the 1000+ SSAOs. I may still be working on this if it were not for their assistance. I have appreciated all the support I have received from my student affairs colleagues as I worked in a newly-created graduate assistantship. Being housed in Campus Activities was a great experience working with a dedicated and caring group of people. I especially have to thank Christopher H. Bullins, my supervisor. Chris has been a great support and mentor as I negotiated the demands of the doctoral experience and I learned so much from him. I am incredibly grateful to Jill Carr, the SSAO for BGSU. Jill opened up her calendar to meet with me informally on numerous occasions to discuss leadership, political savvy, decision-making, and so much more. She also was a great help in offering her wisdom and insights about my journey. viii The idea for my research came when I read Dr. Shay Davis Little’s dissertation. Shay was very willing to allow me to update her literature review and instrument and embark on my own journey of research on SSAO success. A number of current and former SSAOs helped in giving suggestions for the instrument used in the study and in participating in a pilot of the survey; thank you Zauyah Waite, Jill Carr, Keith Humphrey, Dwayne Todd, John Hernandez, and Ed Whipple. I am also grateful to the 441 SSAOs who participated in the survey, without you this research could not have been accomplished. Many friends and family members have been so good about asking me about my classes and my progress, I appreciate their support so very much. I am eternally grateful to my partner and the love of my life, Ellen Broido. Ellen always believed in me, even when my own confidence wavered. Since she is a faculty member in my program of study, she never looked at my work or offered feedback, but she always made me feel like I could be successful in this endeavor. I appreciate her patience with my taking over large chunks of our home for books, papers, articles, and various other artifacts needed to be visually available. I am grateful for all the support and love, especially when I was spinning, cranky, and overwhelmed. You make me feel special every day. Ellen and I share our home with “the boys,” our cats Sam and G. With a cat bed on either side of the laptop on my desk, the boys helped me get through many a long paper, preliminary exams, and of course the dissertation. I am so lucky to have had a great family and wonderful colleagues to take this journey with me. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 Background ................................................................................................................ 1 Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................... 4 Change ........................................................................................................... 6 Theory of Adaptation ..................................................................................... 9 Purpose of the Study .................................................................................................. 10 Research Questions ................................................................................................... 11 Definitions.................................................................................................................. 11 Significance of the Study ........................................................................................... 13 Summary .................................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ............................................................... 16 Overview .................................................................................................................... 16 Effective Leadership in Higher Education ................................................................. 17 Leadership in Student Affairs .................................................................................... 22 Constant Change ........................................................................................................ 27 Connection to the Institutional Mission and Culture ................................................. 29 Demographic Characteristics ..................................................................................... 32 Behaviors, Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge ............................................................ 33 Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge in Higher Education ....................................................................................................... 33 x Leadership Behaviors, Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge in Student Affairs 35 Summary .................................................................................................................... 39 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ....................................................................................... 40 Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................. 40 Research Design......................................................................................................... 41 Instrument Development ............................................................................................ 42 Pilot Test ........................................................................................................ 42 Grouping BASK Items in Categories ............................................................ 43 Data Source and Participants ..................................................................................... 44 Participant Response ...................................................................................... 46 Item Order for the BASK Inventory .............................................................. 46 Data Collection .......................................................................................................... 47 Measures .................................................................................................................... 47 Dependent Variables ...................................................................................... 48 Independent Variables ................................................................................... 48 Data Quality through Pre-Screening .......................................................................... 49 Statistical Tests and Data Transformations................................................................ 50 Parametric Test .............................................................................................. 50 Data Transformations..................................................................................... 51 Non-Parametric Test ...................................................................................... 52 Analyses ..................................................................................................................... 52 Limitations ................................................................................................................. 54