A comparison of interpersonal communication style and relationship satisfaction of academic and student affairs administrators in two-year colleges

The purpose of this dissertation was to compare the communication style of academic and student affairs administrators and to determine whether these administrators were satisfied with their mutual relationship. The study was conducted among 109 chief academic and student affairs administrators in two year colleges from five states who took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the researcher's Relationship Satisfaction Survey. Oneway analysis of variance and the Selection Ratio Type Table were used to compare responses by groups of academic or student affairs administrators on MBTI scales of sensing or intuition and thinking or feeling. Oneway analysis of variance was also used to compare participants' responses to six items on importance and satisfaction scales of the Relationship Satisfaction Survey. The MBTI findings of the study indicated that academic affairs administrators were more likely than student affairs administrators to prefer intuition and student affairs administrators more likely to prefer sensing. Almost one half of the academic affairs administrators preferred intuition plus thinking, and almost eighty percent preferred intuition. The student affairs administrators' types were more diverse, with one third scoring as feeling types and over one half sensing types. These findings have an impact on the communication style that might be used by administrators when collaborating with counterparts of differing psychological types. The findings of the Relationship Satisfaction Survey indicated no significant difference between the two groups in their importance or satisfaction ratings of six aspects of the partnership. These aspects included agreement on resource allocation, agreement on policies and procedures, agreement on ethical principles and practices, effective listening by partner, general understanding and maintaining a collaborative working relationship. The means of the sums of importance and satisfaction scale scores for each group were similar, indicating both groups believed the items important and were satisfied with those aspects of their partnership. Conclusions related to the findings include suggestions to improve the communication between academic and student affairs administrators. Specific suggestions were given for each of the four MBTI functions of sensing plus thinking, sensing plus feeling, intuition plus thinking and intuition plus feeling. It is recommended that future research include larger studies, studies where participation is of a less voluntary nature and studies of matched pairs of administrators who work together.