Staff Management in the Writing Center: Theoretical and Practical Preparation for Administrators

Though every writing center administrator (WCA) manages a staff, staff management is not widely studied in writing center scholarship. This thesis reports the results of a nationwide survey of WCAs’ preparation for and experiences with staff management in writing centers. The data suggests that many new WCAs feel unprepared for staff management at the beginning of their administrative jobs. The data about WCA staff management beliefs is categorized into four themes: collaboration, empowerment, nurture, and authority. A disparity also seems to exist between the frequency of these themes in the participants’ description of their beliefs and the frequency of the themes in their descriptions of their daily practices. This thesis indicates questions for further research into these findings and discusses why staff management should be of larger interest to the field of Writing Center Studies. INDEX WORDS: Writing center, Administration, Staff management, Survey STAFF MANAGEMENT IN THE WRITING CENTER: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL PREPARATION FOR ADMINISTRATORS