期刊名称：Journal of Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities
电子版ISSN：2413-9270
出版年度：2015
卷号：1
期号：1
页码：22-35
语种：English
出版社：International Educational and Social Sciences Association (IESSA)
摘要：Department chairs’ job position in higher education is a unique one as it is full of conflict. No business, academic or non-academic unit can avoid conflict between its employees. Conflict is inherently more likely to occur within an academic department than in any other type of business unit. Survey and questionnaire are employed as the research methodology and technique, respectively. The study population consists of two groups: professors and department chairs. The questionnaire was distributed among all 66 department chairs. Random sampling was used to select professors. 200 professors received the questionnaire. Statistical results of the data analysis show that there is a significant direct relationship between role overload and role conflict. Additionally, there is a significant relationship between department chairs’ leadership styles, roles and some personal and professional characteristics (e.g. how they were selected as the department chair or head of an academic group) and role conflict. Department chairs who follow a liberal leadership style experience lower levels of role overload and conflict compared to those who follow authoritarian and mixed leadership styles. The findings also show that there is a difference between what professors expect from roles of department chairs and what department chairs expect from their own role. Furthermore, there is a significant difference between what professors think of leadership styles of department chairs and what department chairs think of their own leadership styles.
