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Power Use Behaviors of Library Administrators: Relationships Among Administrators' Preferred Social Power Use, Readiness to Empower and Administrators' Characteristics
(1997)
  • David Evans, Kennesaw State University
Abstract

Statement of the problem: Little, if any, research has been conducted into the fundamental relationships between power use and empowerment in the academic administrative area. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships among library administrators' preferred power use, their readiness to empower and administrators' characteristics.

Methods: The population for this study included library administrators employed in 145 public institutions defined by the Carnegie Commission as Masters I and Masters II. The design of this study was correlational using correlational and survey methods. The research instruments consisted of the Power Perception Profile - Profile of Self developed by Hersey and Natemeyer (1979) and the Empowerment-Readiness Survey developed by Henkel, Repp-Begin, and Vogt (1993), a demographic survey of the library administrator. The objectives of this study were to answer two questions: (1) Is there a significant relationship among library administrators' preferred power use, their readiness to empower, and administrators' characteristics? (2) Is there a significant relationship between library administrators' preferred use of the seven bases of power and the six dimensions of empowerment?

Results: The results obtained through the three instruments did not support a general relationship existing between administrators' preferred power use, empowerment, and selective administrators' characteristics.

Conclusions: Administrators preferred to use expert power. However, male administrators showed no relationship between the seven individual power bases and the six dimensions of empowerment. Female administrators did show mild relationships between their preferred base of expert power and the six dimensions of empowerment. Finally, there were no significant relationships among specific administrators' characteristics, preferred power use, and empowerment.

Keywords
  • School administration,
  • Library science,
  • Occupational psychology,
  • Power,
  • Studies
Publication Date
1997
Citation Information
David Evans. "Power Use Behaviors of Library Administrators: Relationships Among Administrators' Preferred Social Power Use, Readiness to Empower and Administrators' Characteristics" (1997)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/j_david_evans/3/