Perceiving and Interpreting Environmental Change: An Examination of College Administrators' Interpretation of Changing Demographics

Abstract

This research examined the effect of organizational and resource dependence factors on college and university administrators' interpretation of an objectively verifiable environmental change: the decline in the number of 18–22-year-olds in the United States. Results indicated that these characteristics significantly affected the interpretation of changing demographics but explained relatively little variance in administrators' certainty about how to respond to a changed environment. The research suggests that examining the interpretation of specific environmental changes may be a useful way of gaining insight into the factors that influence the environmental interpretation process.