As stated at the onset of this chapter, this study had three main data collection approaches i.e. the questionnaire survey, the interviews used in the case studies and desk research (document analysis). We analysed the different sets of data in different ways. The questionnaire survey was our main source of data for the
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description of the leadership styles of the deans and also for explaining those styles.
The questionnaire generated quantitative data which was analysed through quantitative approaches mainly relying on Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The first part was composed of questions on the leadership behaviours and leadership roles of the deans from which we derived the leadership styles of the deans. We have discussed how we deployed the 32 behaviour statements of the Competing Values Leadership Instrument to the deans (see outcomes of deans responses to these behaviours in Appendix B). The 32 behaviour statements were composed of 4 statements for each of the eight roles. For each leadership role we constructed indexes based on four behavioural items by simply summing up the scores of the four items and dividing them by 4 (the number of items per role) Based on these roles we carried out a two-step cluster analysis (see section 6.3.2) to determine the leadership styles of the deans, cluster them and put each dean in the corresponding cluster.
In explaining the leadership styles of the deans, we used attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural controls of the deans. As explained in section 4.4 we evaluated the attitudes of the deans directly by presenting them with sixteen statements on attitude (on a 7 point Likert scale i.e. 1-not important at all to 7 - extremely important). The statements were related to the eight roles of CVF with each role being represented by two statements. The scores of the statements making up each role were accumulated by indexing to give the total scores of each role. Since the leadership styles of the deans are made up of these roles, the scores of the deans on these attitude statements were their attitudes towards those roles (styles).
Subjective norms of the deans was attained by evaluation of their normative beliefs and their motivation to comply with their important referents (see details in section 4.6.1).
The product of these two values gave us the subjective norms of the deans towards the different leadership styles of the deans. We then calculated the perceived behavioural control of the deans based on nine statements of barriers to establish if they faced any barriers in performing the leadership styles (see section 4.6.1 for details). To find out the extent to which these three independent variables (attitudes,
subjective norms and perceived behavioural controls) influenced the leadership styles of the deans, we carried out regression analysis (see section 6.5). We also analysed the possibilities of relationships between the independent variables.
The third step was to assess the impacts of the leadership styles of the deans on commitment of staff in the faculties led by the deans. For this we used interview data from the interviews undertaken on the sampled staff from the case studies. The data was mainly analysed by taking the constructions gathered from the contexts and reconstructing them. This process involves unitizing the data, category designation, bridging, extending and surfacing the data as illustrated in Patton (2005). This was in addition to indexing of the scores regarding their commitment to the faculties (see section 4.4). The information from document analysis was analysed from a thematic approach. Braun & Clarke (2006:78) view thematic analysis as a method of identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data. We thus analysed the documents based on themes and categories that were relevant to our study.
A summary of the steps is:
- We presented the deans with 32 behaviour statements whose sums were calculated leading to an index, in principle ranging from a minimum of 32 to a maximum of 224.
- Next we evaluated the extent to which the deans performed the 8 leadership roles of CVF based on four statements (from the 32) making up each role.
The scores of the four statements were indexed, ranging from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 28.
- We then determined the attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural controls, as the independent variables in the TPB model.
- Then we executed several regression analyses in order to see if and to what extent attitudes, social norms and perceived behavioural control explain a particular leadership style. In these analyses we controlled for several
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factors (such as gender, the legal status of the university i.e. public or private, age and experience (duration in office) as a dean. This concludes the first part of this study.
- Finally, we conducted a number of case studies, selected on the basis of the outcomes of the first part of this study (selecting a number of faculties that are being led within the identified leadership styles). Interviews were conducted with 27 academic staff members. The interview protocol used was based on the instruments that have been developed for the Three Component Model of organizational commitment. We used the five point scale of the commitment items for analysis thus, determining which items and aspects of commitment had weak, moderate or strong levels of commitment based on the 24 statements (i.e. 8 statements for each aspect of commitment). These steps are summarised in table 4.3.
Table 4.3 Data analysis steps
Variable Items of measurement Measurement format Leadership behaviours
of deans
32 behaviour statements Index of 32 behaviours on a scale of 1 to 7 (presented by mean score)
Leadership roles of deans
8 leadership roles Index of 4 statements on a scale from 1 to 7 composing each leadership role (presented by mean score)
Attitudes towards the styles
16 items Index of two statements on a scale from 1 to 7 making up the attitudes for each of the 8 leadership roles
Subjective norms 4 items of normative beliefs
Means of the 4 normative belief items for every referent group
4 items of motivation to comply
Means of 4 motivation to comply items
Normative beliefs multiplied by motivation to comply
Means of normative belief items multiplied by those of motivation to comply for 4 referent groups
Perceived behavioural controls
9 statements of control beliefs
Index of 9 statements on a scale from -3 to 3 (presented by mean score)
Organizational commitment
8 statements of affective commitment
Thematic analysis of the responses and indexing of scores of interviewed staff for the 8 statements 8 statements of
continuance commitment
Thematic analysis of the responses and indexing of scores of interviewed staff for the 8 statements
8 statements of normative commitment
Thematic analysis of the responses and indexing of the scores of interviewed staff for the 8 statements
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