A study of leader behaviour of two types of appointed university chairmen.

An examination, by means of the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire (LBDQ), was made of the leader behaviour of two types of appointed University department chairmen. The appointments were 1) permanent, made by the Vice-Principal Academic; 2) three-year term, renewable, made by the Vice-Principal Academic in consultation with the Dean and the department members involved. The writer argued that those term appointed department chairmen who were appointed by consultation between their immediate superordinate (the Dean) and their subordinates (the department members) proved more "effective" leaders than those whose appointments were made solely by the superordinate. On the basis of the hypothesis which was tested, a significant difference was found in one of the leader behaviour dimensions, Initiating Structure. This finding supported the hypothesis in part, since originally it was stated that the term appointees would score significantly higher on both dimensions and therefore be more "effective" leaders