Leadership style of information technology administrators in selected Adventist Educational Institutions in the Southern Asia-Pacific Region

Abstract

This study was conducted with the purpose to investigate the rerationship between the leadership style of Information Technology (IT) administrators in selected Adventist colleges/universltles in the Philippines, and the perception of the consumers about IT services in the mentioned instltutions. The population included in the study was the 8 IT leaders in the eight Adventist colleges/universities in the Philippines, and the consumers in the institutions, consisting of the faculty, staff and students. The total number of questionnaires was 676, from whlch 641 (94.8%) were the usable. There were two sets of questionnaires, one for IT leaders which measured selected demographic variables of the leaders, the self-perceptlon of the leadership styre, and some variabres about the instltution. The second set of questionnaires was for the consumers of the IT (faculty, staff and students) and measured selected demographic variables of the consumers, and their attitude toward the IT services. The demographic profile showed that the respondents were mostly women (51.3%), in the population for faculty, staff and students. This was the reverse in the case of the IT leaders, where 75% were found to be males. Slgnificant differences were found in the perception of the IT services among the consumers, when consumers were grouped by age, number of years in the institution, and revel of completed education. Significant differences were found between the faculty, staff and students, with the students indicating worse perceptjion of the IT services. For measuring the leadership style of the leaders, a model developed by the US Army was used. It measured three components of the leadership style: authoritatlve, democratic, and laissez-faire. Significant relationship was observed between the leadership style and the perception of IT services by the consumers. Negative correlations were found between the attitude of consumers toward the IT department and the authoritative and democratic components of leadership, and a positive correlation was found between the laissez-faire style and attitude of the consumers toward the IT department.