This study was conducted to determine the extent of difference in leadership practices of the Master’s CSP program matriculating cohort consisting of 15 participants and the graduating cohort consisting of 13 participants. Data was collected using Kouzes and Posner’s Leaderhip Practices Inventory (LPI) instrument. This instrument measures the level of transformational leadership practices of the respondent on five constructs. Profile analysis was used to examine level, parallelism and flatness of survey results using an alpha of .10 for exploratory research.
The results indicate there is no difference in the LPI scores of the matriculating and graduating cohort with the exception of the LPI practice of Challenging; F (1, 26) = 3.36, p = .079. The results demonstrated an improvement in Challenging scores by the graduating cohort. Challenging the process consist of two major commitments, “search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow, and improve” and “experiment and take risk by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes.” With the exception of acquiring additional training via the Master’s CSP program this researcher has no opinion as to why the graduating cohort scored significantly higher on the LPI practice of Challenging.
It was found that both the matriculating and graduating cohort scored the five LPI practices in the same order as numerous previous LPI studies. This would indicate that both cohorts prioritize the five LPI practices in the same order as over 100,000 leaders who have completed the LPI survey.
This researcher declines to generalize to other Master’s CSP programs. Generalization of this study is limited to CSP students and graduates of Ohio University.
This study included a limited qualitative component that resulted in insightful additional information. The Master’s CSP program participants at Ohio University strongly (96%) believe that leadership training is very important to the program. More than half of the participants indicated that they had received their leadership training from exposure to leaders as a result of fieldwork but some students (6.5%) volunteered information indicating it was a counterproductive experience.
Research indicates if transformational leadership training interventions occur that LPI scores should improve. Research also indicates that university leaders should have LPI scores at or better than the LPI norms. This study indicates that neither the graduating nor matriculating cohorts achieved LPI norm scores.