Managerials Skills of Administrators of Bicol College Daraga, Albay: An Assessment

A Research Presented to The Faculty and Members of the Research Council Bicol College Daraga, Albay

Marlene L. Ravelo Annabel De Vera 2012

Chapter 1 The Problem and its Setting Introduction Native has made a direct distinction between and the lower creatures in terms of skills. Unlike lower creatures which develop their skills quite instinctively or simply by imitating their elders, men develop their skills by formal and or informal education and by experience. So much so that human organization have invested so much in the training and development of their manpower as a policy designed to make them effective and efficient. Writing on the importance of human education, Douglas has this to say: It is an accepted fact that training and development are necessary for the spirit, survival and performance of an organization and that workers must be develop to manage the organization effectively and in the years to come.1 Trainings and development are designed for all levels of management. Basically, the focus of management training is the development of cognitive, technical and human relations skills. Studies have been conducted to determine the type of skills which every level of management must develop. At the lower level of management, the major focus is the development of technical and human relation skills. At the middle level, the administrators effectiveness depends more on human and conceptual skills, while at the top level administrators need more conceptual skills.2 Administrators are expected to develop their skills or competencies in their work as provider of knowledge. They need more technical skills in the use of tools, techniques, procedures or approaches in the areas of their professional practice. And since their profession deals with the management of teachers and non teaching staff and students they need to develop human skills, they need to develop human skills in relating with a variety of clients. School administrator or mangers need the ability to select, motivate, work with and lead others, either individually or in groups.3 They must have the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations, which they need in decision making.4

As mentioned earlier, man does not develop the above skills instinctively, but through education and experience. Teachers undergo a long process of formal education in the classroom where they perform their practicum. The managerial skills can also be developed through informal trainings like attendance in conventions, seminar-workshops or graduate study. Experience also gives the teachers the opportunity to develop the skills. They are exposed to a variety of situations, problems and demands.5 The teachers can also acquire the skills through mentor or preceptor. Percepting occurs when an inexperienced person learn a set of managerial skills from observing, achieving with and relating to a more experienced person.6 It would therefore appear that for an administration to develop their skills, he or she must have adequate education and training, must have enough experience or has been under a mentor or preceptor from whom he or she was given the opportunity to develop their skills. Many teachers in the school pursue their task unmindful of the skills they need to make them effective leaders or mangers. Although they are given the opportunity to attend training, they may not have developed the three basic skills which can make make them effective managers or teachers who maybe given the opportunity to determine the skills that have been developed as need to be developed among the adminstrators working in Bicol College Daraga, Albay. The researchers would like to know what are the skills that the administrators of Bicol College possesses. Simultaneously, this study ought to contribute relevant and efficient information noteworthy to the management and to all those who are concerned in the profession.

Setting of the Study The setting of the study is Bicol College which is located in Daraga, Albay. The school was founded by the late Engineer Roque F. Tabuena in the year 1941. It has four main departments namely the graduate school college, high school and the elementary department. The graduate school offers the following Doctor of Education, Doctor of Philosophy in Management, Master of Arts in Education,

Master of Science in Criminology, Master in Management. For the college courses, the school has the Bachelor of laws, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Bachelor of Elementary Education, Bachelor of Secondary Education, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Library Information Sciences, Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Bachelor of Science in Criminology, Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management. Certificate in teaching in Elementary Level, Certificate in Teaching Secondary level, 2 year associate in Computer Technology, 2 year Midwifery, 2 year Computer Hardware Servicing, 2 year Hotel and Restaurant Services, Caregiver and TESDA courses such as baking, breastfeeding, housekeeping, foods and beverage sciences. It has special programs like Review for Criminology and Board Review for LET. Bicol College is a private institution being run by a Board of Trustees headed by Dr. Ma. Luz T. Macasinag as the President, Dr. Pedro T. Marcellana III the vice president, Mrs. Mary Ann Lachana Corporate Secretary, Mrs. Milagros T. Arroyo Treasurer and Mrs. Victoria T De Belen. The institutiton has been producing graduates that occupies higher position in government and private agencies and others and successful in business. This school will continue to produce graduates that will cater to the needs globally and law abiding citizens of the country.

Fig. 1 Map of Bicol College

The year 1941 saw the birth of Albay Institute, forerunner of the Bicol College which was founded by the late Engineer Roque F. Tabuena who at that time was engaged in the construction business, principally in the province of Albay and Sorsogon. It has the first non secretarian private educational institutes in the province of Albay. The first courses offered were Associates in Arts (AA), Associate in Commercial Science (ACS), and Elementary Teachers Certificate (ETC). Branches of Albay Institute were established that year in Legazpi Port, Malinao and Polangui. Ligao Institute, Bacon Institute and Putiao Institute were added in 1949. Daraga Institute was founded in 1950; Juban Institute in 1952; Pilar Institute in 1953. Only Juban Institute remains today, in deference to the wishes of the founder because my roots are there. The name of the Institute was changed to Bicol Junior Colleges in September 1949. At that time, its offerings included elementary, high school, and four year courses in Education, Liberal Arts, and Commerce. In 1951 it changed its name to Bicol Colleges. The institution left its Old Albay site in 1957 after initially acquiring a 1, 625 square meters lot in Sagpon, Daraga, Albay along the national highway. Buildings were constructed as room and additional adjacent site were acquired. College of nursing started in 2004 which is located at the north campus of Bicol College Daraga Albay to determine the managerial skills of the administrators of this institution.

Statement of the Problem This study aim to assesss the management skills of administration of Bicol College Daraga Albay. Specifically, it will seek to answer the following problems: 1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of a. Age b. Sex c. Civil status

d. Highest educational attainment e. Number of years as administrators 2. What is the level of managerial skills of the administrators as perceived by the respondents in terms of a. Conceptual b. Technical and c. Human relations 3. Is there a significant difference in the perception of the three groups of respondents 4. What recommnendations be proposed to further improve the managerial skills of the administrators?

Hypothesis of the study There is no significant difference in the perception of the administrators, the faculty and the non teaching staff.

Scope and Delimitation This study will be conducted in Bicol College Daraga Albay this school year 2011-2012 on the administrators of the above mentioned institution. The administrators who have performed for at least one year and the teaching and non teaching staff who were employed in the school for at least one year will be covered in this study. The problem is delimited to the three managerial skills namely conceptual, technical and human relations skill.

Significance of the study This study will be beneficial to the following persons: School Management. The findings of this study will provide the school management with information regarding the managerial skills of the administrators with the end view of helping them adopt measures that will improve the skills of their administrators together with other staff who maybe given managerial management. Administrators. As the mangers in charge of the activities of the school and the staff (treaching and nonteaching) they maybe guided in making self assessment of their managerial skills especially the technical and human relations skills since they are accepting middle level partition in the school. Teaching Staff. Faculty maybe given the opportunity to perform managerial tasks which require the knowledge and expertise in decision making, use of tools are dealing with people. This study will provide them with vital information which they can use for self improvement. Personnel Officer. The preparation of training and other development programs is usually ne of the tasks of the personnel officer. The results of this study may be used as input to the training program which can be given to all staff of the school particularly the administrators. Schools. Improved managerial skills of the administrators would be advantageous to schools since both student and faculty will be dealing with administrators who are strong in human relations skills or factors badly needed to help facilitate the education and training of students. Students. Under the hands of effective school administrators, students will be placed under the watch of personnel why places priority on students welfare. Masteral Students. The finding of this study can be used as related material in conducting similar studies like leadership or continuing education topics.

Theoretical Framework This study is guided by the assertion that administrators that administrators need to develop

some managerial skills, foremost among where are technical, human and conceptual or diagnostic skills. According to Katz (1968), skill is the ability to use the knowledge one has in most effective ways. Technical skills are the ability to use administrators tools and techniques toward the accomplishment of ones task. Human relation skills is the ability to deal with and understand people and use it in the attainment of any desired goal. Conceptual skills is considered the highest of the three basic skills. It is the ability to generate and develop ideas, to perceive the enterprise as a whole and to identify its interpersonal parts. This theory is adapted in this study and basis for defining the managerial skills of the administrators holding managerial position in the school. This theory is illustrated in Figure 1.

Conceptual Framework This study is guided by the concept that administrators must possess managerial skills which they need in the performance of their tasks as managers in the school where they are working. Using the input- process- output approach, the researchers consider the following as the input of the study; the profile of the administrators in terms of age, sex, civil status, highest education, number of years as administrators, managerial skills along conceptual, human relations and technical skills. The process consist of an analysis ands interpretation of the profile and managerial skills of the administrators. The output is the recommendations to enhance the managerial skills of the administrators. The recommnendations will be feedback to the concerned administrators as indicated by the feedback loop arrow shown in Figure 2.

Definition of Terms The following terms will be defined conceptually and operationally for better understanding of their study: Administrators. Refer to top and middle level managers who exercises administrative and supervisory power over the faculty and non teaching staff of the school. Management. Refers to the process of coordinating actions and allocating resources to achieve organizational goals Skills. Refers to the ability to use the knowledge one has in most effective ways. 7 In this study it refers to those managerial skills used by the administrators in the performance of their functions as school administrators. Conceptual Skills- Refers to the ability to generate and develop ideas, to perceive the work as a whole and to identify its interpersonal parts. The administrators must be able to link the work of the group with the work of other people and other departments like accounting, registrar, library and records. Human Relation Skill- Refers to the ability to deal with and understand people and use it in the attainment of any desired goal. Administrators need the ability to select, motivate, work with and lead employer either individually or in groups. Technical Skills- is the ability to use administrative tools and techniques towards the accomplishment of ones task. Bicol College- refers to an accredited higher education institution that offers elementary, high school college and post graduate studies. Daraga, Albay- refers to a municipality in the province of Albay that belongs to the second district.

Chapter 2 Review of Related Literature and Studies This section gives the highlights of the reviewed literature and studies which are related to the present study. Skills are what make people useful in an organization. In hiring a worker, the first consideration is whether the applicant possesse the skills needed in the position being filled up. Other considerations like the personality of the applicant, his experience, work attributes are given corresponding points. As mentioned earlier, skills can be acquired either through formal education, on the job training or through experience. Since skills may become absolute, organizations spend quite a fortune to finance the training or retraining of their employees. Competent employees dont remain competent forever. Skills deteriorate and can become obsolete. In the United states, corporation with more than one hundered employees spent $52.2 billion on one recent year on formal training for 47.3 million workers.2 Xerox spent more than $300 million annually on trainings and retraining of its workers.3 Motorola, Federal express, AndersenConsulting, Corning andSingaporean Airlines all spend a minimum of three percent of their program of their payroll cones on training.4 Robbins mentioned at least four general categories of skills that can be developed through training; basic literacy, technical, interpersonal and problem solving. Basic literacy training usually focuses on fundamental skills like reading mathematics skills. In Americans, The US government of Education noted that 90 millions Americans have limited literacy skills, about 40 millions can read little or not at all.5 The Amercian Management Association reports that one out of three applicant tested for jobs by its member in 1995 tasked sufficient reading or math skills to perform the jobs they were seeing.6 Most training aims to upgrade and improve the workers technical skills. New technology

necessitates the application of new skills or methods. Managers expected to have or to acquire proficiency in a broad variety of skills that relate to every part of the human being. Managers with technical skills can be easily acquired for they can be taught through education or training. Another skill category that needs to be developed is interpersonal or human relation skills. Workers performance in the organization depend on their ability to effectively interact with their coworkers and their boss. Some employees have excellent interpersonal skills but others requires training to improve thers.7 On the part of the administrators, they need the ability to select, motivate, work with and lead employees, either individually or in groups. According to Robbins, human skills are much more difficult to acquire because interpersonal relations involves consideration of difference in attitudes, emotions and cultural characteristics of many individuals and groups. Conceptual skill is the most difficult to acquire because it involves time and a certain level of intellectual ability. It depends on the degree to which technical and human relations skill have been acquired and mastered. It is a mature skill that requires a capacity to learn and a level of experience in achieving and practicing acceptable behaviors.8 On low management skills are acquired. Douglas mentioned three mechanisms: 1) educating and training, 2) experience and 3) preceptor/ mentor relationship with a higher level.9 One of these studies conducted locally which analyzed the three management skills was that of Orobia (1988). In this study management skills are labeled leadership skills which were correlated with two other management variables, job satisfaction and job conflict. The respondents were fifteen deans and 400 college instructors of three universities in the Bicol Region. The deans called middle level administrators were found to have above average or very satisfactory leadership skills. They excelled best in human relations skills, next in conceptual and third in technical skills. The deans technical skills was related to sex and salary while conceptual skill was related to salary and college application.10 Conducted a decade ago but still related to the present study was the research of De Chavez (1990) who examined one aspect of leadership variables, that of leadership skills. The basis of this

study was the skill mix theory which states that different skill requirements are needed for leadership at different levels of organization and at different times. One hundred sixty four employers representing the three level of management of the Philippine Airforce made up the respondents. Among the finding are: 1)the managers were best in technical skills and least in human relation skills 2) the respondents prefer the Division Chief to the major divisions but relies on the advice of other people of the division. Perceived and preference decision making structure were found to be significantly different. A fairly centralized decision making structure is preferred. Human relations play a position or direct relationship with better human relations. Decision making structure were also found to be dependent to a large extent on the leadership qualities of the managers.11 Ochoco (1980) wanted to determine the leadership skills of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Philippines namely the Philippine Air Force, Philippine Navy, and the Philippine Army. He had 305 respondents. Among his findings were: there were similarities of human relations among leaders of the three groups of the Armed Forces especially in the technical, administrative and institutional skills. Each service called for a particular type of expertise.12 Several studies of the managerial skills of school administrator have been conducted locally. Since managerial skills transcends the type of profession or position held, some of their sides are reviewed in this chapter. Soriano (1988) studied the supervisory practices of school administrators in Pozorubio. The study revealed that school heads were perceived by their faculty to be performing supervisory functions very satisfactorily. On the other hand, the administrators perceived themselves to have exemplified positive attitudes towards their role and functions. A significant difference was likewise found in the perceptions of both groups along the areas of guidance and human relations.13 In his study of the supervisory effectiveness of principals in the public elementary schools of the Cordillera administrators region (CAR). Madarang (1996) found that successful principals are goal oriented, get control of paper work, lead by consensus but take charge when appropriate , develop

people skills, recognize and utilize others expertise, keep in touch with the kids, communicate clearly, have a concentrate discipline plan, celebrate success, and maintain a sense of humor.14 Rojas (1990) identifies the various duties performed by the school administrators, such as these offering practical and constructive suggestions concerning the organization procedure relative to their school wide program and to the classroom teachers situation, connecting with individuals and group of teachers, working with teachers in classroom through observation, demonstration and consultation, providing sample instructional and professional materials, maintaining teacher morale.15 The study of Valdez (1995) focused on the leadership behavior of elementary school principals as affected by organizational climate of their schools. She made use of the leadership behavior discipline questionnaire as data gathering tool. Among the following were: principals perceived themselves as high on both, Coordination and Initiating Structure Styles; the teacher perceived these principals as high in Initiating Structure and low in Coordination. In the study of Cariaga (1995) on the instructional leadership skills of the principals and head teachers their skills ranged from moderate extent to great extent. The study found that the teachers still look up to the school principal as an instructional leader more than that of department head. He noted that factors such as age, sex, civil status, experience in present position, educational attainment and number of in service trainings have no relationship or bearing on their instructional leader. 19 Penaso- Ho (1990) maintains that supervisors should possess basic human relation skills coupled with positive attitude to be facilitative. Among new findings: people will express their real feelings and attitudes better only in an accepting, permissive, and non threatening atmosphere; acceptance of the person as a worthy individual whose problems and concerns need attention and acceptance of what the person says as important and of interest; facilitative supervisors trust in the other persons capacity; trustworthiness of the supervisor is vital in a facilitating role and should be communicated to others. 10 The skills displayed by school administrators can be adopted by teacher holding managerial

positions, for after all in any work area, the leaders will be dealing with people, exercising managerial skills which are classified into cognitive, technical and human relations skills. The above mentioned studies provided the needed information which helped the researcher in the conceptualization of this study.

Synthesis of the State of the Art The literature and studies reviewed in this chapter reveal the importance of certain leadership or managerial skills which must be developed by middle level managers like administrators of the school. This was gleaned from the writings of Katz (1986), Atkinson (1978), Robbins (1998), Douglas (1992) and from the various studies cited. Orobia (1988) showed the level of skills possessed by college deans with human relations skills as the number one skill, followed by conceptual and technical skill. The present study was able to validate this finding among the administrators of Bicol College Daraga Albay. Basically managers need to possess these skills whether in the Airforce (Dechavez 1980) or Armed Forces (Ochoso 1980) in education sectors particularly among school administrators (Soriano 1988); Madarang 1996; Rojas 1990; Valdez 1996; Cariaga 1995 and even among school administrators.

Gap Bridged by the Study In the course of their review, the researchers did not find a study which focused on the managerial skills of administrators particularly in Bicol College Daraga, Albay. If there was, these studies were not well disseminated so that future researchers should be able to review them and conduct a follow up study. Aware of these research gap, the present study will be conducted so that additional information on managerial skills maybe added to the present body of knowledge.

Chapter 3 Research Methodology This chapter is a description of the method and the procedures use in the analysis and interpretation of data. Research Method The descriptive study method will be used in the interpretation of the data on the managerial skills of the administrators of Bicol College Daraga, Albay using a questionnaire checklist as the main data gathering instrument. The method will be used since it describes an existing solution at the time of the conduct of the study namely the managerial skills possessed by the administrators. 1 Population of the Study The population of this study consisted of 25 administrators, 86 faculty/ teaching staff and 46 non teaching staff of Bicol College Daraga, Albay. The adminisitrators will be picked out by one hundred percent enumeration while the teaching and non teaching staff will be randomly selected using fish bowl technique.

Data Gathering Procedure The primary data were collected by means of a prevalidated questionnaire checklist supplemented by informal interview.

Preparation of the Questionnaire In the preparation of the questionnaire, the researchers consulted some books, literature and studies which are related to the present study. The questionnaire consists of two parts. Part one is about the profile of the administrators. Part two pertain to the managerial skills possessed by their administrators as perceived by their subordinates. The three managerial skills (conceptual, technical and human relation skills) are the focus of the investigation. Three sets of the questionnaire were

prepared which have parallel questions, one set is for the administrator, another one is for faculty/ this proposal. Validation of the Questionnaire The questionnaire will be validated t osome of the faculty of Immaculate Conception College in Daraga, albay. They will be asked to evaluate the quality of the questionnaire according to the following criteria: 1) clarity of the questions, 2) relevance to the research problem, 3) grammatical and linguistic consistency, 4) freedom from assumption, 5) specificity of the questions. The evaluation will use the following scale: 3- very satisfactory, 2- satisfactory, 1-fair. Administration of the Questionnaire. Before the distribution of the questionnaire, the researchers will ask permission from the school administrators to allow the researchers to distribute the questionnaires to the respondents. The instrument will be personally distributed and retrieved by the researchers. The data are then to be tabulated, organized, and interpreted quantitatively and qualitatively. Statistical Treatment of the Data Frequency counts, percentage, weighted mean and coefficient of concordance will be use in the interpretation of the data. The formula of percentage is as follows: P = n x 100 N where P= percentage, n= number of respondents who respond to a particular question; N= total number of respondents. The weighted mean scale will be used to measure the managerial skills of the administrators. The formula is as follows: Weighted Mean = TWF N where: TWF= total weighted frequency N= number of respondents To quantify the weighted mean for each indicator, the following rating scale will be used as suggested

by Bolanos (1997). Scale 5 4 3 2 1 4.50- 5.49 3.50-4.45 2.50-3.49 1.50-2.45 0.50-1.45 Verbal Interpretation excellent very satisfactory satisfactory fair poor

To determine if significant difference exists between the perception of the administrators and the teaching and non teaching staff, the Kendalls Coefficient of Concordnace will be used. The formula is as follows:

H= 12 N (NA)

where: H= Kruskal Walls Anova N= no. of cases in each sample Ri= sum of rank in each column