Date of Award

8-1980

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Dr. Uldis Smidchens

Second Advisor

Dr. Richard Munsterman

Third Advisor

Lawrence P. Zatkoff

Abstract

This descriptive study investigated the 83 juvenile court administrators in the state of Michigan. Specifically, the study attempted to (a) collect biographical and professional data regarding the administrators, (b) establish a preferred leadership style utilizing the Managerial Grid Theory postulated by Blake and Mouton, and (c) test the relationship between key variables and the leadership styles demonstrated by the administrators as a group.

The instruments utilized to collect the data were the Style of Management Inventory copyrighted by Teleometrics International of Woodland, Texas, and a self-designed Personal Data Questionnaire. These instruments were mailed to all 83 juvenile court administrators. The data were collected to report on such characteristics as (a) administrative title, (b) years in present administrative position, (c) educational attainment, (d) major field of study, (e) current participation in training or development program, (f) political appointment, (g) number of staff supervised, (h) age, (i) location of the court, (j) self-assessment of effectiveness level, (k) self-assessment of style, (l) major concern of administrator, and (m) career plans.

Ten hypotheses were constructed to investigate the relationship between the administrators' leadership styles and the following variables: (a) political appointment, (b) educational level, (c) age, (d) years in present position, (e) court location, (f) group size of followers, (g) self-assessment of style, (h) self-assessment of effectiveness level, (i) major concern of the administrators, and (j) career plans.

A major conclusion of this study was that no significant or predominant leadership style could be established as the universal style of the leaders, as a group. However, it was concluded that the most frequently selected leadership style was 1/1. The collapse of the style categories resulted with a demonstrated behavior style of 1/1, 1/9, or 9/1 for 66% of the administrators.

Additionally, it was concluded that educational achievement was not a factor in development of the leadership traits of these administrators, since most possessed a bachelor's degree or lower educational level. However, most of the administrators had majored in the behavioral sciences.

It was also concluded that the juvenile court administrators, as a group, were comparatively younger than leaders of equal responsibility who were in other areas of business, government, and industry.

The major problem facing the juvenile court administrators at the time of the study was the lack of adequate financial resources.

It was found that the administrators, as a group, are not predictable when compared to leaders in industry, government, and business.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

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