Date of Award:

5-1968

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Department:

Management

Committee Chair(s)

Howard M. Carlisle

Committee

Howard M. Carlisle

Committee

John R. Cragun

Committee

Eugene C. Kartchner

Abstract

The prime interest of this study was to measure and analyze the authority/responsibility conceptions the program managers had of themselves as compared to that held by the line or functional personnel with whom the program managers were in day-to-day contact. A questionnaire consisting of 22 questions was distributed to 20 program managers and 73 line personnel. Of these 93 distributed questionnaires, 92 were returned and analyzed. The questionnaire asked to what degree, in the opinion of the respondent, did the program manager have the authority to perform 22 different functions. Categories of Always, Frequently, Seldom and Never were offered.

The hypothesis tested was that there was no difference between the conception the program manager held of his authority and responsibility as compared to what the line organization personnel held it to be. A chi square test was applied using a significant level of five percent to accept or reject the hypothesis. The Program Management responses were considered as the theoretical frequency and the line personnel responses as the observed frequency. The null hypothesis was accepted 59 percent of the time.

Percentage relationships of the responses to each question were also computed. On a percentage basis the program managers typically viewed their authority to be greater than did the line personnel.

The basic conclusion was that no clear pattern of agreement emerged between the program managers and the line personnel as to the degree of authority held by the program manager and that the company involved in the study should improve the authority/responsibility relationships involving the Program Management and line organization personnel.

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