Dissertation Abstract

A Study of Job Satisfaction in African-American Administrators at Selected Predominantly White Colleges Versus Those at Selected Historically Black Colleges.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to explore, compare, and investigate the differences and similarities in job satisfaction for the African-American administrator in higher education employed at Historically Black colleges/universities versus those employed at predominantly White colleges/universities.

Hypotheses. The hypotheses for this study related to (1) differences in professional involvement levels between the two groups, (2) differences in alienation scores between the two groups, and (3) differences in self-esteem scores between the two groups of African-American administrators. The independent variable was the type of institution where the African-American administrator was employed. The dependent variables were several measures of professional involvement, scores on the Alienation Test, and Self-Esteem Scale.

Procedure. The study compares 37 African-American administrators from Historically Black colleges/universities with 42 African-American administrators from predominantly White colleges/universities holding parallel administrative positions and compares their responses to: (1) several measures of professional involvement utilizing data from specific survey questions, (2) the scores on the Alienation Test, and (3) the scores on the Self-Esteem Scale.

Analysis. The chi-square test was used to analyze data derived from the series of professional involvement responses. Data derived from the Alienation Test and the Self-Esteem Scale were analyzed using the t test for related samples for African-American administrators from the two types of higher education institutions. All hypotheses were tested at the.05 or.005 level of significance.

Results. The results of the analysis of the data gathered in this research study indicated no significant difference in job satisfaction as defined by the researcher for the two groups of administrators.

Conclusions. Although the three hypotheses were not found to have statistical significance, this study sheds light on several aspects of job satisfaction as they relate to professional involvement, alienation and the self-esteem of the African-American administrator from the two types of higher education institutions.

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