A comparison between the management practices of academic department chairpersons and private industry managers

Graduation date: 1990A great deal of responsibility accompanies the\ud person who becomes an academic department chairperson.\ud However, the new department chairperson is often a temporary\ud occupant of the chair and will return to a\ud teaching faculty role within a relatively short period\ud of time. In addition, there are few training programs\ud in place to prepare the new department chairperson for\ud the managerial components of the position.\ud Considering the short duration of incumbency, the\ud dearth of training, and the internal relationships\ud within departmental faculties, the question is asked:\ud How do academic department chairpersons compare with\ud their counterparts in private industry, who in turn receive\ud more training, remain in their position for\ud longer periods of time, and almost never return to\ud their former position?\ud A survey instrument developed for private industry\ud application was used to ascertain the perceptions of\ud the managerial styles, including the perceived\ud strengths and weaknesses, of academic department chairpersons.\ud Nine academic deans, 24 department chairpersons,\ud and 99 faculty members participated in the survey.\ud The results were analyzed by application of the\ud two-tailed "t-test" statistic. Although there were\ud strong indications of similarities between the management\ud styles of academic department chairpersons and\ud managers in private industry, the research hypothesis\ud that there were no significant differences in perceived\ud styles between the two types of managers was not supported