The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 46, No. 1 - 38

Stephen A. Berg, Casey Graham Brown

agree. The Cronbach's alpha for Role Conflict
was .889 and for Role Ambiguity was .924.

LIMITATIONS
This study had several limitations. The generalizability of the study was limited because the
sample consisted of only universities located
in the southwest part of the United States and
did not include other geographic locations that
could have impacted the findings. Another
limitation was that the Synergistic Supervision
Scale measures the perception of resident assistants, which does not equate with the full
reality of the supervision that the individuals
have received (Saunders et al., 2000). Additionally, the sample size was small; one school's
participants were overrepresented compared
to the other institutions' participants. Finally,
a correlational study may be used to determine
the relationship between variables (positive or
negative); however, in a correlational study, the
researcher is unable to determine a cause and
effect relationship (Gall et al., 2003).

FINDINGS
Of the 63 RA respondents, 46 (73.0%) identified their gender as female, 16 (25.4%) as male,
and one (1.6%) as transgender. University A
had the highest RA return rate (27.2%), with 34
respondents, and University B had the second
largest return rate (19.6%), with 12 respondents. A majority of respondents identified as
White/Caucasian (61.9%, n = 39). The next
highest percentage of participants was Hispanic/Hispanic American, at 14.4% (n = 9). Five
participants (7.9%) identified as Black/African
American, and five (7.9%) identified as Native
American/Asian American/Pacific Islander.
Four participants (6.3%) identified as Biracial/
38

Multiracial, and one participant (1.6%) provided
a write-in response, Haitian American.
A majority of the participants had reported
to their current supervisor for two semesters
(63.5%, n = 40). Nine (14.3%) had reported
to their current supervisor for one semester.
The remaining participants had reported to
their supervisor for more than two semesters
(22.3%, n = 14). A majority of the participants
(71.5%) were upper-division students (juniors
or seniors), while 25.4% were sophomores.
Of the 20 RDs who participated, just over
half (55%, n = 11) identified their gender as
male and 45% (n = 9) as female. The majority of participants (70%, n = 14) identified their
ethnicity as White/Caucasian. Only one other
ethnicity had more than one participant: Hispanic/Hispanic American (10%, n = 2). One
participant identified with each of the other
ethnic categories-Black/African American,
Asian/Pacific Islander, and Biracial/Multiracial-and one individual did not respond
to the question. Participants' years of experience supervising RAs in their current position varied. Nine (45%) were in their first year
of employment in the position, and five RDs
(25%) were in their third year in the position.
The remaining participants fell into three categories: second year, fourth year, and beyond
the fourth year. Two participants (10%) fell into
each of these categories.
There were five research questions that
this study attempted to answer. A significant
relationship (p < .01) was found between synergistic supervision and role ambiguity, role conflict, intention to turnover, and job satisfaction
(see Table 2). The relationship between RD job
satisfaction and RA job satisfaction was not
found to be significant.

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 46, No. 1

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