Development of
Knowledge, Skills, Abilities,
and Attitudes of
Vocational Administrators
Ed
Dunley
Earle
Lee
Joseph L.
Miller
Bonnie
Stradie
Katie Walker
Effective leadership by vocational administrators is essential to
the fostering of educational change.
Vocational administrators have as part of their duties, the responsibility
to create an environment where followers are inspired and motivated to
perform. Effective leadership
is a complex entity and must be explored from many angles to determine what
role leadership style and leadership characteristics have on employees’
performance. The knowledge,
skills, abilities, and attitudes (KSAAs) of successful educational leaders
must be explored to determine what are those characteristics that need to
be nurtured and developed in the training and education of future leaders
of our vocational education systems.
Successful leaders in vocational education administration were targeted for this study. Principals and vice-principals of vocational educational facilities near the Florida State University campus were surveyed. Questions were asked to determine the level of attainment of each KSAA each administrator believed he or she exhibits in daily job operations. Time constraints were a major concern of this study and otherwise the research group would have performed qualitative-based interviews.
The Organization
Administration and Management of Vocational Education
Class at The Florida State University conducted
a survey for a class project. We wanted to explore various leadership styles
of persons in administrative leadership positions in vocational education.
It is our hope that by having the administrators complete our survey, we
will be able to take a look at the different leadership styles and determine
which style is more productive to better serve the vocational education students.
We also hope to share our findings with other vocational administrators,
vocational education teachers, and those who aspire to be a future
administrator.
The goal of this
group project was to develop a set of knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes
(KSAAs) needed by vocational education administrators in the function of
supervision of educational staff.
Literature reviews were conducted and lists of prominent KSAAs were
extracted for use in the study.
The objective of this project is to identify those skills that are
most important to our set of outstanding vocational
administrators. The most common priorities of these people from our developed
set of knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes will be focus areas for
training of those that wish to become proficient in supervision and development
of vocational education staff.
Development of KSAA
Descriptors
The group reviewed the relevant literature to identify characteristics of successful leaders, managers, and vocational supervisors. These descriptions will be used to construct the interview/survey questions. The characteristics were then defined. The research group reviewed the characteristics and definitions were discussed for clarity and understanding.
Complete sets of the descriptions were distributed to each member
of the research group. The
descriptions were sorted into the ten categories as defined by Evans
(1996). Each category was inspected to determine if there was
consensus among the group. The
requirement was that three of the five members must place the description
of the Knowledge, Skill, Attitude, or Ability (KSAA) in a single
category. This procedure was
repeated until all but one KSAA was
grouped. The team was unable
to sort the descriptor “ability to impart subject
knowledge.” The characteristic
is so important that it could easily fall into various categories of supervisory
management.
The groupings are as follows:
Tasks
1.
Review
Literature. The research team reviewed
contemporary literature from various sources to determine what are the reported
attributes of vocational administrators that lead to the success of the
institution. As topics were
explored, team members reproduced and distributed copies of the materials
discovered for all members to review.
As the literature was read, summaries were extracted from which a
list of key indicators of successful performance was
developed.
2.
Topical
Descriptors. From
the list of key indicators from the previous exercise, descriptions of the
indicators were developed. These
descriptions were vital to the development of the list of the
KSAAs.
3.
Sort
KSAAs. The team reviewed the
list of tentative KSAAs and each description to ensure that all members
understood the indicator and definition.
The KSAAs were then sorted into topical
areas. These topical groupings
aided the team to quickly identify and record observed
behaviors.
4.
Update KSAAs.
As additional literature
was reviewed and new KSAAs were discovered, they were added to the current
list. This list and the descriptors
was constantly reviewed and revised to ensure current data was used in the
interviews/surveys.
5.
Ensure Validity of
KSAAs. The
research team conducted an activity to ensure inter-rater reliability of
the categorization of the KSAA
indicators. After the group
had assembled the indicators into ten categories, the indicators were then
distributed to each research team member to categorize
again. This activity allowed
the team to check for understanding of the indicators and
descriptions. After a majority
of the team decided on each KSAA and the associated indicators, the data
were recorded. In events where
no clear consensus would be reached, discussions around each indicator were
held until the group was in agreement as to which category the indicator
belonged.
6.
Revise KSAAs.
The list of KSAAs was
revised following the previous activity.
7.
Develop KSAAs For Use In
Discussions.
The data collected was recorded formally to ensure that each team
member had documentation of the KSAA, indicator, and
description.
8.
Conduct
Interviews. Interview was the preferred
choice of data collection.
However, due to time constraints, a survey was
developed. Questions were
constructed which explored the level of attainment of each of the KSAA indicators
as designated by the research subject.
A total of forty-eight items were included on the
survey. The research team discussed
the proper protocol that would be used in interviewing a research
subject. The group also explored
the proper approach for introducing and asking for completion of a
survey. Several research subjects
were identified to complete the survey.
These subjects were either principals or vice-principals of local
vocational education institutions or
divisions. The subjects were
contacted and survey appointments
established. Some surveys were
completed upon delivery, while others were completed and mailed/faxed to
the research team member.
9.
Compile
Data. The data was transferred
from the survey form into a spreadsheet.
The response categories were numerically categorized for the calculation
of an average and standard deviation of each KSAA indicator
group.
10.
Write Report and
Findings. The
team assigned sections of the report for
completion.
Findings
The ten KSAA categories acquired from the literature with one additional universal element (global – imparting knowledge) were used in the development of the research instrument and the interpretation of the results. The survey indicates that all the respondents had a high level of belief that he or she portrays an acceptable KSAA in the work place. The three lowest rating characteristics were power, organizational conflict, and vision. These three characteristics also had the highest standard deviation signifying that the administration are not consistently confident within the group of their mastery of the skills in these areas. These results indicate that program developers for the training of vocational education administrators must pay special attention to the three aforementioned KSAAs. Successful administrators indicate that their effectiveness in the areas of power, organizational conflict, and vision are not as strong as they could be. With intentional focus to the development of these attributes of vocational education administrators in training programs, confidence and competence can be heightened.