ERIC Number: ED170937
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1979-Apr
Pages: 43
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
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Available Date: N/A
Structural Characteristics and Organizational Design Decision.
Murphy, Michael J.
This paper was presented as part of a symposium that dealt with several systematic research efforts that employed a specific methodology--the Structural Properties Questionnaire (SPQ)--as a measure of organizational structure in schools. The "subjects" in this study, 17 students in a class on organizational behavior, representing 14 different schools in 5 Utah school districts, were given instruction in structural analysis and were asked to describe their work organization in specific structural terms. The SPQ was administered to the teaching faculty in each of the subject's schools. Comparison of school descriptions provided by the class participants and by the SPQ revealed that, while there was some ability to recognize relative differences among specific factors, course participants were not consistently able to estimate structural levels. In general the class participants were poor judges of the state of structural affairs in their school organization. The results of this study would seem to suggest that administrators, left to their own means, are likely to misread the state of school organizational structure. It follows, then, that any design decisions that follow will be misguided. (Author/MLF)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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Author Affiliations: N/A