Educational preparation and attributes of community and migrant health center administrators

Based on a 1994 national survey of Community and Migrant Health Center (C/MHC) administrators, this study draws a profile of C/MHC administrators in terms of their personal and work characteristics, as well as their values and beliefs regarding successful C/MHC attributes and important managerial practices. Further, the study compares C/MHC administrators with different educational preparation in terms of their personal and work characteristics, values and beliefs, as well as their perceived deficiencies. The study results indicate that critical factors in C/MHC success, in order of ranked importance, were good organizational leadership, organization's value to community and efficiency. Successful managerial characteristics, in order of ranked importance, were vision for the future of organization, honesty/integrity and open to new possibilities. Administrators with more advanced degrees expressed less deficiencies and those with no college degree showed greatest deficiency on five of eight measures.