ADAPTATION AND VALIDATION OF AN INSTRUMENT FOR THE PERCEPTION OF MANAGEMENT POLICIES AND PRACTICES FOR HIGHER EDUCATION PROFESSORS

Abstract

This article sought to adapt and validate an instrument for the perception of management policies and practices aimed at higher education professors, since the available instruments were designed for organisations in general and do not address the particularities of academic work. The instrument was based on two scales already validated for Brazilian organisations, with the addition of items on research incentives, publication support and the teaching career. Content and criterion validity derived from the published origin of the items, complemented by prior definition of the constructs, peer review and pre-testing. A total of 386 professors from Brazilian public and private institutions took part, answering on an interval scale based on adverbs of quantity and frequency. Internal consistency reached a Cronbach's alpha of 0.956. Exploratory factor analysis, used for the statistical validation of the constructs defined a priori, retained six factors explaining 67.3% of the accumulated variance, with a sampling adequacy of 0.948. The expected dimensions were reproduced, and the added items formed a factor of their own. It is concluded that the adapted instrument is suitable for measuring teachers' perception of institutional management.