Research Article: 2020 Vol: 24 Issue: 2
Nandang Faturohman, Jakarta State University
Bedjo Sujanto, Jakarta State University
Thamrin Abdullah, Jakarta State University
The main agenda of the tertiary institution is to improve the quality of tertiary education and lecturers. To find out lecturers as an important component in education system of higher education, the researchers conducted a research at University of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa (Untirta). Untirta is one of the state universities in Indonesia, located in Serang City, Banten Province. The aim was to determine the effect of leadership on the professionalism of lecturers. To achieve this goal, the survey method was conducted, through a sample of 226 lecturers. Analysis of the data used consists of: descriptive statistical analysis and inferential statistical analysis. The results of the analysis show the correlation between leadership and professionalism obtained r of 0.047 and t-test of 8.474. Then, the ttable value at the 0.05 level is 2.002. Thus, it can be concluded that there is a significant influence between leadership on lecturer professionalism.
Lecturer, Leadership, Lecturers’ Professionalism, Universities, University of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa.
Universities such as University of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa in Banten can do their main role from two aspects, namely: (1) as a producer of knowledge (for example, scientific findings) and other knowledge products and can train many people scientifically and skillfully, and (2) as a producer of the ability to master knowledge in form of highly educated human resources. Higher education institutions that already have a good education system, certainly are an integration of various components, namely: lecturers, students, education support staff, curriculum, faculties, departments, study programs, facilities and infrastructure, finance and so on are integrated in the context of the alma mater, therefore, universities that have good systems These are divided into two systems, namely: (1) hardware and (2) software (Bargh et al., 2000). The hardware system includes various components that can be seen and observed directly, for example: facilities and infrastructure, funds, and so on. Meanwhile, the software system includes various abstract components such as: curriculum, lecturers, courses, and so on.
Lecturers are the most important component in an education system in higher education. The ability of universities to face various challenges in the future lies in the hands of lecturers (Wibowo, 2003). Thus, the pattern of support for lecturer development becomes a determining factor for higher university efficiency (West & Bollington, 1990). Therefore, in an effort to improve the quality of higher education, improving the quality of lecturers must be the main agenda of the tertiary institution. All efforts to reform the curriculum, improve and enhance infrastructure and management of higher education become an important agenda, but without the presence of professional, qualified and prosperous lecturers, everything becomes meaningless. In other words, the main determinants of higher education quality include professional lecturers.
Professional lecturers are seen to have the capacity needed and required by their profession, namely: have high competence and qualifications, high scientific capacity, the ability to transfer science and technology according to their scientific fields to students, able to research, continuously actualize knowledge, and have a commitment towards his profession. Therefore, to achieve this capacity, curriculum improvement, improvement of infrastructure and management of tertiary institutions are needed. One management function that is assumed to affect the professionalism of lecturers is leadership.
Lecturer Professionalism
Professionalism lecturers have the following characteristics: (1) want the nature of pursuing the perfect results, so the lecturer demands to always look for improving the quality of performance; (2) requires seriousness and thoroughness of work which can only be obtained through experience and costs; (3) demand perseverance and perseverance as characteristics that are not easily satisfied or discouraged until results are achieved; (4) requires high integrity that is not swayed by compulsion or temptations of faith such as wealth, degrees, and enjoyment of life; and (5) requires unanimity of thoughts and actions so that high work effectiveness is maintained. According to Soedijarto (1993) that professionalism of lecturers requires lecturers to be able to analyze, diagnose, progize the educational situation. Professional lecturers need to master (1) scientific disciplines as a source of learning material; (2) teaching materials taught; (3) knowledge of student characteristics; (4) knowledge of philosophy and educational goals; (5) knowledge and mastery of teaching methods and models; (6) knowledge of the principles of educational technology; (7) knowledge of assessment and able to plan, lead, to smooth the educational process.
The main competency that must be mastered by lecturers is to teach students. However, this competency does not stand alone; separate from other abilities because teaching in the classroom requires basic abilities. According to Surya (2004) the nine characteristics of an ideal lecturer image, namely: (1) having a high fighting spirit accompanied by the quality of faith and piety; (2) able to realize itself in relation and matching with environmental demands and the development of science and technology; (3) able to learn and cooperate with other professions; (4) has a strong work ethic; (5) has clarity and certainty in the development of career paths; (6) high professional spirit; (7) has physical and spiritual welfare, material and non-material; (8) has an insight into the future; and (9) able to carry out its functions and roles in an integrated manner. While Hadiyanto (2004) explained that lecturers in the 21st century must have; (1) mature and developing personality; (2) mastering strong science and technology; (3) skills to arouse students' interests and (4) developing their profession on an ongoing basis.
In general, lecturers must fulfill two categories, namely having capability and loyalty. Capabilities, namely lecturers must have the ability in the field of science they teach, have theoretical abilities about good teaching; from planning to implementation to evaluation. Loyalty is loyal to the tasks; not only in the classroom, but before and after class (Rosyada, 2004). A good lecturer must meet seven criteria, namely (1) trait, lecturer must have an enthusiastic, simulative nature, encourage students to progress, warm, task-oriented and work hard, tolerant, polite, and wise, trustworthy, flexibility and easy adjust to democracy, full of hope for students, not looking for personal reputation, able to overcome the stereotype of students, able to convey their feelings, and have good hearing; (2) knowledge, lecturers also have adequate knowledge on the lessons they teach, and keep abreast of progress in their field of science; (3) what is delivered, the lecturer is able to provide a guarantee that the material he delivered covers all the discussion units expected by students to the maximum; (4) how to teach, lecturers in explaining various information clearly, and clearly, providing varied services, using small groups effectively, encouraging all students to participate; (5) expectations, lecturers are able to provide expectations to students, make students accountable, and encourage parental participation in advancing the academic abilities of their students; (6) lecturers' reactions to students, lecturers can accept various inputs, risks, and challenges, always providing support to their students, consistent in agreement with their students; and (7) management, lecturers are able to show expertise in planning, have the ability to organize classes since the first day he was on duty, quickly start classes, pass the transition period well, have the ability to cope with two or more class activities at the same time.
Leadership
Leadership is an effort to direct and influence followers associated with the tasks of all group members. Thus, leadership has three important implications, namely: (1) leadership must involve other people or followers, because they are willing to accept direction from the leader; (2) leadership includes the unequal distribution of power between leaders and group members. Members of the group are not without power, they can and can form group activities in various ways, and (3) leadership is the ability to use various forms of power to influence the behavior of followers through a number of ways (Stoner et al., 2017). Furthermore, Donnelly et al. (2017) stated that leadership is the ability to influence others so that people passionately try to achieve goals.
Leadership involves two functions, that is, in order for the group to run effectively, a leader must carry out two main functions, namely: (1) functions that are task related or problem solving; and (2) social or group maintenance functions. The first function concerns the giving of suggestions, solutions, information and opinions. While the second function concerns everything that can help the group run more smoothly to get the approval of other groups, mediating differences of opinion and so on (Hani, 1998).
A leader, in his efforts to be able to influence, mobilize, and direct others, requires certain abilities and skills as well as adequate traits so that his efforts can be successful. According to Tead (2010) case expresses some basic abilities and qualities that must be possessed by a leader, including: physical and mental energy, awareness of purpose and direction, enthusiasm, friendliness and love, integrity, mastery technical, decisiveness in decision making, intelligence, teaching skills, and trust. Two dimensions of the leadership function, if derivates more operationally, then found five main functions of leadership, as mentioned by Nawawi (1995), namely: instructive function, consultative function, participation function, delegation function, and control function.
The research was carried out to describe and interpret: conditions, relationships, opinions about the process due to or effects that occur or trends that are developing. Survey methods used, it is done namely by selecting a sample from a population to reveal relative, and interrelated events among variables (Kerlinger, 1979). The populations were all permanent lecturers in University of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa with 420 lecturers, while the sample used was 226 lecturers. To determine the sample, the Slovin formula is used, which is a formula or formula to calculate the minimum number of samples with a relatively large population.
Data include primary data and secondary data. Primary data include: lecturer leadership and professionalism. The instrument implementation procedures are: (a) determining the trial respondents; (b) the implementation of the test; (c) instrument analysis. The instrument development process begins with determining respondents then proceed with the preparation of instruments that refer to the indicators of each variable, then the next stage of instrument conceptualization and review by the promoter, to be matched to the conceptual definition and grating of the instrument with the theory used to discuss variables the. After the instrument is approved by the promoter, the instrument can be tested. The purpose of testing the instrument is to test the validity and reliability of the items of the instrument that will be used in research. Data analysis was performed using the SPSS for Windows computer program. They consisted of two parts, namely: descriptive statistical analysis and inferential statistical analysis. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed to present data through frequency distribution Tables, histograms, averages and standard deviations. Meanwhile, inferential statistical analysis is used to test hypotheses (in this study using path analysis) (Nasoetion & Barizi, 1985). By using path analysis, it can be determined the direct effect of independent variables on the dependent variable. To see the relationship between these variables, the calculation phase is first, calculating: standard score; second count: correlation coefficient; and the third calculates: path coefficient using formulas that have been determined according to the purpose of the study.
Leadership variable data was obtained from distributing questionnaires to 226 lecturers. The theoretical score is based on a questionnaire for a minimum value of 42 and a maximum of 210. The real magnitude of the collected scores has a distribution of scores between a minimum value of 160 and a maximum of 177 as shown in the following Table 1.
| Table 1 Frequency Distribution of Leadership Variable Data | ||||
| No | Interval Class | Frequency | ||
| Absolute | Relative (%) | Cumulative (%) | ||
| 1 | 160 – 163 | 25 | 11 | 11 |
| 2 | 164 – 167 | 51 | 19 | 22,5 |
| 3 | 168 – 171 | 73 | 32,5 | 32,3 |
| 4 | 172 – 175 | 51 | 25,3 | 25,2 |
| 5 | 176 – 1179 | 20 | 8,8 | 8,8 |
| 226 | 100 | 100 | ||
From Table 1 above, it is known that for leadership variables the highest score is in the score group 168-171 with a relative frequency of 32.5% and the smallest is in the score group 176-179 with a relative frequency of 8.8%. Referring to the distribution, shows the distribution of normal data with an average value of 169,411 with a standard deviation of 4,299. Furthermore, for the lecturer professionalism variable data obtained the distribution of scores between a minimum value of 110 and a maximum of 130 is shown in Table 2 below.
| Table 2 Frequency Distribution of Lecturer Professionalism Scores | ||||
| No | Interval Class | frequency | ||
| Absolute | Relative(%) | Cumulative (%) | ||
| 1 | 110-114 | 32 | 14,2 | 14,2 |
| 2 | 115-118 | 42 | 18,5 | 18,5 |
| 3 | 119-122 | 70 | 30,5 | 30,5 |
| 4 | 123-126 | 51 | 22,6 | 22,6 |
| 5 | 127-130 | 41 | 15,1 | 15,1 |
| 226 | 100 | 100 | ||
From Table 2 above, it is known that the highest score is in the score group 119-122 with a relative frequency of 30.5% and the smallest is in the score group 110-114 with a relative frequency of 14.2%. Referring to the distribution, shows the distribution of normal data with an average value of 120,654 with a standard deviation of 4.997. Referring to Table 1 and Table 2, the two variables are normally distributed. To find out the relationship and even the influence between the two variables, it is done by parametric statistics through t test. The results of the t test analysis are shown in Table 3 below.
| Table 3 Results of Calculation of Path Coefficient and Correlation Coefficient | ||||||
| Path Coefficient | correlation coefficient | Conclusion of result of Hypothesis analysis | coefficient significant path test | Notes | ||
| t-count | t-table | |||||
| α = 0,05 | α = 0,01 | |||||
| P21 = 0.719 | r12 = 0.776 | H0 rejected | 3.593 | 2.002 | 2.663 | Positives and significant |
The value of the calculation of a simple correlation between variables X with Y obtained the value of r of 0.776 and the path coefficient of P21 of 0.719 with a t-test of 3.593. For the number of samples of 226 at the significance level of 0.05 and 0.01 obtained t-table values of 2.002 and 2.663. Based on this, using a significance level of 0.05 or 0.01 indicates the value of t-count is greater than t-table. Furthermore, when referring to the path coefficient shows, the higher the leadership, the higher the professionalism of lecturers. The results showed that there was a positive direct effect of leadership on lecturer professionalism, meaning that as much as Untirta's leadership would improve the professionalism of lecturers in carrying out their tridharmas duties. That is, in Untirta leadership is the norm of behavior used in influencing lecturers. The behavior adopted by the leader determines his success in leading. This success is an effort to create professionalism of lecturers. Increasing the professionalism of lecturers is possible if there is full support from Untirta's leadership. In the context of one's professional character, someone who is a professional is someone who has a loyalty to his expertise or skills to complete his work beyond the loyalty of individuals or to anyone (Sergiovanni, 1992). That is, loyalty to such work gives the meaning that he works for the job, not working for someone, even though his workplace changes his leadership, he continues to carry out his duties without being affected by the change of leadership, because his loyalty is given to carry out the work the.
Based on the results, the following conclusions were obtained: (1) the improvement of the quality of leadership in the environment has proven to be able to increase the calling of lecturers and vice versa. So, it is evident that leadership in University of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa played an important role in creating the calling of the souls of his lecturers; (2) improving the quality of leadership has proven capable of increasing the organizational commitment of lecturers and vice versa. So, it is evident that the leadership played an important role in creating the organizational commitment of lecturers; and (3) improving the quality of leadership in the University environment proven to be able to improve the professionalism of lecturers and vice versa. So, it is evident that leadership in University of Sultan Ageng plays an important role in creating professionalism of lecturers.