School Business Officials' Perceptions of the Importance of Various Job Skills.

The purpose of this study was to determine school business managers perception of the relative importance of the various job skills of school business management. A questionnaire was mailed to 230 school district business managers in the State of Michigan on a r and omly selected, stratified basis of which 67% responded. The demographics of the instrument dealt with age, sex, educational background, and title. Of major concern, was the business official's perception of the relative importance of 29 job skills. These activities were rated on a seven point scale as to: time spent in an average week, importance of the activity in five to ten years, and importance as related to success on the job in the future. The 29 job skills were categorized into four groups: Money, General Administration, Purchasing and Operations. The activity dealing with budget preparation and analysis (Money) was perceived as requiring the most time (averaging 6.35 hours per week) as well as being the most important activity now and in the future. The General Administration activity of attending various meetings was second averaging 4.36 hours per week. Overall, General Administration activities consumed approximately 32.26 hours per week while Money required 16.98 hours per week. Purchasing and Operations each required 4.69 and 7.40 hours per week respectively. However, more time was spent on the average on each of the six Money activities (2.83 hours) than was spent on one of the 17 General Administration activities (1.89 hours). Business Managers perceive that on the average they individually spend 61.33 hours per week on the 29 identified activities. The responses of the business officials surveyed indicate a significant correlation between the time spent on the 29 activities now and the importance of these activities in the future: Money (P = 0.001), General Administration (P = 0.002), Purchasing (P = 0.031), and Operations (P = 0.010). Purchasing shows a significant correlation with all categories to which it was compared. There was a weak correlation between Money and General Administration (P = 0.304). Of the 16 possible correlations comparing the four major categories of activities, 12 were significant at the 0.05 level.PhDEducational administrationUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/158920/1/8215090.pd