Kevan W. Lamm

A Longitudinal Evaluation of Change Leadership within a Leadership Development Program Context

The need for individuals capable of leading change has become pronounced based on the changes occurring within the higher education system. The purpose of this study was to examine if participation in the LEAD21 leadership development program, a national leadership program for faculty emerging as leaders in the land-grant university system, changed participant levels of change leadership. The longitudinal analysis included comparisons across members of three classes in the LEAD21 program, as well as the aggregated data from all three years. Results indicated overall level of change leadership rose by an average of 28.8%. Additionally, the study established benchmarks for pre-program and post-program levels of change leadership. Leadership educators can use the results to inform future leadership education initiatives. Furthermore, the study presents a Leading Change Scale that may be appropriate for future leadership program evaluations. Ongoing evaluations of leadership programs are encouraged.

Predicting Undergraduate Leadership Student Goal Orientation Using Personality Traits.

Finding strategies to increase the motivation of students, their connection with the material, and retention of the content, has been very important within leadership education. Previous research studies have shown that personality traits can predict desired outcomes, including goal orientation or motivational disposition. However, there have not been any studies which have specifically analyzed how personality predicts goal orientation in undergraduate leadership students. The results of this study found that between 15% and 28% of the variance in goal orientation dispositions was predicted by personality factors, confirming the predictive nature of the relationship. Based on the observed results leadership educators are recommended to include personality and goal orientation discussions into their leadership curriculum and to create a learning environment that accommodates all learners.

The Mentoring Experience: Leadership Development Program Perspectives

Using a semi-structured interview approach, ten mentors from a leadership development program focused on building leaders in Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences across the nation provided insights regarding their mentoring method, process, and experiences. Mentors interviewed agreed the mentoring process was beneficial for themselves as well as their mentee. However, clear thematic differences were evident depending on whether a previously existing relationship was in place between mentor and mentee. Specifically, mentoring relationships that were extensions of previous relationships tended to have less formal structures and more subjective outcomes than newly established mentoring relationship counterparts. Nevertheless, both categories of mentoring relationships indicated a desire for a formal set of mentoring expectations as well as access to program curriculum to help guide and inform the process.

Examining Leadership Style Influence on Engagement in a National Change Process: Implications for Leadership Education.

Individuals expected to offer leadership are often chosen based on their power position within the field of interest and specialization in the context area being addressed and not on their leadership style. Leadership education curriculum often focuses on change as a product of leadership and leadership styles but places little emphasis on how the leadership styles of those chosen to lead change can influence the change process. In order to inform the development of curriculum targeting this aspect of leadership, research needs to be done to determine if leadership style impacts level of engagement in change. This research examined how transformational and transactional leadership styles impacted engagement in a national change process when 39 department chairs of universities across the United States were selected by the National Science Foundation to lead science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) educational reform at the undergraduate level. The findings revealed transformational leadership style positively predicted engagement in change and transactional leadership style negatively predicted engagement in change. While the small sample size makes the findings exploratory in nature and should be used with caution, they imply leadership education curriculum should include lessons on the impact these two styles have on engagement in change since there were statistically significant differences.

A Theory Based Model of Interpersonal Leadership: An Integration of the Literature.

Although the term interpersonal leadership has been well established within the literature, there remains a dearth of theoretically derived models that specifically address the comprehensive nature of the underlying leader behaviors and activities. The intent of the present article is to attempt to synthesize the existent leadership models, behaviors, and factors to arrive at a coherent conceptual model of interpersonal leadership that can inform efficient and effective leadership education programs. The resulting model included 13 primary factors integrated within a hierarchical framework. Leadership educators are recommended to adopt or adapt the proposed model while developing educational curriculum and interventions.

Associating Importance with Behavior: Providing Direction for Water Conservation Communication

This study identified differences in characteristics of High Water Users (HWUs) based on their perceived importance of plentiful water and their engagement in water conservation behaviors. Differences in the characteristics of high water users based on the level of importance they associated with plentiful water and their engagement in water conservation behaviors were identified. Communication needs and interests of HWUs were also identified. The Situational Theory of Publics (STP) was applied to explore why HWUs might perceive plentiful water to be important but may not feel personally responsible and may perceive barriers to changing their behaviors. Significant differences were found in terms of gender and race between the four primary groups of respondents identified (High Importance/High Engagement, Low Importance/ High Engagement, Low Importance/Low Engagement and High Importance/Low Engagement). The High Importance/Low Engagement group was identified as an important and potentially high impact public for communicators.

Influence of Source Credibility on Agricultural Water Use Communication

As the agriculture industry strives to communicate with the public about its role in protecting natural resources such as water, it struggles to provide messages from sources the public trusts. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study explored public perception of agricultural water use and how perception was influenced by a video message delivered from four different sources including 1) an environmental scientist from the Nature Conservancy, 2) a farmer, 3) a regulator from a Florida water management district, and 4) a water scientist from the University of Florida. The findings revealed that overall the general public had a positive view of how the agriculture industry used water, regardless of message source. Differences between groups were evident when message source expertise and trustworthiness was dependent on domain area. Results indicated the respondents receiving the Nature Conservancy video treatment exhibited a significantly higher level of agreement with negatively framed items related to agriculture’s relationship with the natural environment than the respondents receiving the farmer video treatment. Based on the findings from this study, agricultural communicators should consider the trustworthiness and perceived expertise of sources, such as representatives from regulatory agencies, educational institutions, members of the agriculture sector, or environmental organizations, when developing messages about water use targeted at the general public.

Leadership Programming: Exploring a Path to Faculty Engagement in Transformational Leadership.

Transformational leadership has served as a model for positive, individual-focused leadership, based on its emphasis on motivation and higher levels of organizational performance. Change is a constant for faculty that become leaders within the Land Grant University System. Changes to governance and accountability of institutions and threats to research through commercial or political interests reflect the need for positive and effective leaders. The purpose of this study was to examine if participation in LEAD21, a leadership development program intended for land grant universities’ colleges of agricultural, environmental, and human sciences and NIFA, changes participant levels of transformational leadership. Results indicated overall level of transformational leadership rose by an average of 7%. This finding was unexpected based on previous research that found statistically significant changes in transformational leadership dimensions of 1% 2%. These results are encouraging, considering transformational leaders tend to lead higher performing organizations. Agricultural educators and leadership development professionals can use the results of this study to inform future teaching practices. The empirical evidence that transformational leadership development within a sample of emerging leaders is encouraging. The continuation and expansion of leadership development programs focused on transformational leadership dimensions are encouraged.