Nomothetic/Idiographic Dimensions

Fred C. Lunenburg

The school can be viewed as a social system. A social system refers to activities and interactions of group members brought together for a common purpose. Thus, a school district, a school, and a classroom can all be viewed as social systems. A useful framework for understanding the administrative process within social systems is the Getzels-Guba nomothetic/ idiographic dimensions model (see Figure 1 ). As shown in Figure 1 , Jacob Getzels and Egon Guba conceive of the social system as involving two dimensions that are independent and interactive. First are institutions with certain roles and expectations that will fulfill the goals of the system. Second are individuals with certain personalities and need dispositions inhabiting the system whose interactions comprise observed behavior. Thus, observed behavior can be understood as a function of these major elements: (a) institution, role, and expectations, which together constitute the nomothetic , or normative, dimension of ...

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