Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of the study was to determine implementation levels of shared governance reforms in the California community colleges and to determine the extent to which thirteen organizational change conditions were used in those implementation efforts. Methodology. A questionnaire was developed to survey the academic senate presidents (ASPs) and chief executive officers (CEOs) of 107 California community colleges. ASPs and CEOs returned 71 percent and 77 percent of their questionnaires, respectively. Descriptive statistics, the z-test of differences, the ANOVA, and Scheffe tests were used to analyze the data. Implementation levels were determined by the percentage of decisions made using participative approaches (collaboration and consultation) in the four shared governance areas of curriculum and course approval, staff development, faculty hiring, and faculty tenure and evaluation. Findings and Conclusions. There is a high percentage of participative decision making in all shared governance areas. CEOs perceive greater participation and greater use of change conditions than do ASPs. Over 80 percent of all colleges in the sample are implementing shared governance to a high degree. There was no significant difference in the occurrence of any change condition between high- and low-implementing colleges, although eight conditions occurred to a relatively greater extent in high-implementing colleges. Recommendations. ASPs and CEOs should improve communications and work together to move the institution's decision-making processes into genuine collaborative and consultative approaches, as described in the study. Use of the organizational change conditions as guides in planning for and implementing those participative systems will result in a more effective and long-lasting change effort.