A Comparison of Role Perceptions of a University Director of Physical Education and Athletics and his Reference Groups

The purpose of this study was to examine the self-role perception held by a university director of physical education and athletics and the expectations of the director’s role as held by certain reference groups. An interview schedule containing twenty tasks was constructed by the author. The twenty tasks were hypothetical situations representative of some of the more important tasks involved in administering the department of physical education and athletics. The interview schedule was then administered to four groups: directors, administrators, lateral-subordinates-super-ordinates, and the department faculty. The Fisher-Yates test of significance in 2 x 2 contingency tables was applied to each of the six hypotheses. As a result of the findings during this investigation, the following conclusion appears worthwhile. An overwhelming majority of congruences indicate little role conflict for this position at this time. It would, therefore, appear to be possible and practical to organize departments of physical education and athletics in this manner