Defining the activities and effectiveness of a university personnel department using the perspectives of multiple constituencies.

Abstract

Quality of service as a measure of organi2ational effectiveness has been a focus of concern in the recent past. Since many suggestions for quality improvement involve human resources« the present project focused on the personnel subunit of a university organization. Tsui (1984) proposed the existence of a linkage between organi2ational effectiveness, activities, criteria, and constituent variables. This linkage was explored in the present project undertaken to obtain an evaluation of the service provided by a university personnel office. The second purpose of the project was to identify the activities considered most important by those served by the department. Perspectives of three constituency groups (administrators, faculty, and classified staff) were used as a basis for evaluation and rating of important activities. Constituents were randomly selected and surveyed using a mailed questionnaire. Data were analyzed using a separate repeated-measures analysis of variance in each of nine dimensions and subsequent Newman-Keuls tests. Results indicated that the perspectives of administration, faculty, and classified staff differ on which personnel activities are important and do not differ significantly when rating the personnel department for effectiveness. Conclusions and implications for future research are discussed.