Progress 01/01/11 to 12/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: 1. To refine the revised LPI and test its structural integrity, reliability and validity. After discussions with community leaders a 35 item revised Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) was developed. The revised LPI was administered to approximately 120 leaders going through leadership training across NC and VA. The LPI was administered using the 360 process which involves a pre/post test of the participant's leadership behaviors (SELF) and a pre/post test by three persons who observe the participant's leadership behaviors (PEER). A test of reliability revealed that both groups had an alpha range within the acceptable range of .7 to 1. For the validity, the PEER ratings for leadership behaviors were highly correlated with peer ratings of overall leader. Self ratings on the leadership behaviors were expectedly lower; however, 4 of the 5 scales are significantly correlated with at least one criteria measure. 2. To develop support materials including a scoring manual and feedback reports. The revised LPI was field tested. Support materials including a scoring manual and feedback reports were developed and used with groups of community leaders and their observers who completed pre and post tests of the LPI. The scoring manual provides directions for entering data into a spreadsheet so that average scores can be calculated for each of the five practices measured by the LPI (i.e. challenging the process, encouraging the heart, inspiring a shared vision, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart). Participants are able to identify which dimension is the most important as well as which behaviors are scored the highest and the lowest. Feedback reports were provided to each community leader completing leadership training and the pretest and post test LPI. The report provided information about the five leadership practices measured by the LPI, an explanation of the participant's results, a graph indicating the participant's scores as self evaluated and as evaluated by observers at the beginning of the leadership training and at the end of the training, and suggested strategies for enhancing each of the leadership practices. 3. To provide recommendations to local community leaders on how to enhance their leadership practices. Based on descriptive, ANOVA, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the data, the SELF group showed that enabling others to act was the highest average score, while the PEER group indicated that encouraging the heart was the highest scored dimension. A significant change in the rating scores was found between the pre and post tests for both groups, indicating the training made a significant difference to these community leaders. Finally, through CFA, it was shown the goodness of fit of the data were adequate based on the CFI, RMSE, and SRMSR tests. Based on the results of the analysis, interactive relationships are critical in leading small rural communities. Of critical importance, is developing the skill of bringing together individuals who are all committed to the same purpose and goals for the future of the community. They must be willing to share their ideas and skills collectively for the good of the community. PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Jane Walker - Co-PI Dr. Benjamin Gray - CO-PI Dr. Cindy McCauly - Consultant, Center for Creative Leadership Dr. Martha Walker - Collaborator, VA Tech University TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience for this project was community leaders working in rural communities or leaders working in small nonprofit organizations that seek to address the needs of the communities in which they have been organized. The project was designed to refine and test a leadership assessment instrument that will enable these leaders to understand their leadership behaviors prior to leadership training and changes in behaviors as a result of leadership training. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: The project was modified by collaborating with Cooperative Extension in VA and a leadership institute in High Point, NC due to insufficient data collection opportunities as originally outlined in the proposal.
Impacts
Development and testing of a revised Leadership Practices Inventory designed for use with rural leaders and leaders of nonprofit organizations provides a psychometrically sound assessment instrument that will improve leadership training programs by continuing the evaluation process of the leadership behavioral patterns of graduates of these programs. Leadership programs can be modified/tailored to meet specific needs of future leaders as social and economic conditions change based upon these assessments. The graduates will become aware of both, their strengths and weaknesses as community leaders. As a result, potential strengthening of rural communities will likely take place in the framework of becoming both economically and socially viable locations for its residents to live. Furthermore, the LPI will help Cooperative Extension personnel, as well as other agencies to enhance leadership training programs in the future by providing participants with evidence of their leadership behaviors before and after training. Based on current findings, these programs can be tailored to meet specific needs of rural communities thus creating the opportunity for such rural communities to prosper both economically and socially in the future.
Publications
- Gray, B., & Walker, J. (2010). An Analysis of Leadership Behaviors of Rural Community Leaders through Focus Groups and Interviews. Research Presentation. Rural Sociology Society, Atlanta, GA.
- Walker, J., & Gray, B. (2010). Exploring the Leadership Behaviors of Community Leaders through Focus Groups and Interviews. Research Presentation. North Carolina Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, Wrightsville Beach, NC.
- Monge, Patricia. (2011). Women Leaders: Understanding Leadership Development in Community-Based Organizations. Thesis submitted to Department of Agricultural Education, School of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, North Carolina A&T State University.
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Progress 10/01/08 to 09/30/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This project ended in FY2011. 1. To refine the revised LPI and test its structural integrity, reliability and validity. After discussions with community leaders a 35 item revised Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) was developed. The revised LPI was administered to approximately 120 leaders going through leadership training across NC and VA. The LPI was administered using the 360 process which involves a pre/post test of the participant's leadership behaviors (SELF) and a pre/post test by three persons who observe the participant's leadership behaviors (PEER). A test of reliability revealed that both groups had an alpha range within the acceptable range of .7 to 1. For the validity, the PEER ratings for leadership behaviors were highly correlated with peer ratings of overall leader. Self ratings on the leadership behaviors were expectedly lower; however, 4 of the 5 scales are significantly correlated with at least one criteria measure. 2. To develop support materials including a scoring manual and feedback reports. The revised LPI was field tested. Support materials including a scoring manual and feedback reports were developed and used with groups of community leaders and their observers who completed pre and post tests of the LPI. The scoring manual provides directions for entering data into a spreadsheet so that average scores can be calculated for each of the five practices measured by the LPI (i.e. challenging the process, encouraging the heart, inspiring a shared vision, modeling the way, and encouraging the heart). Participants are able to identify which dimension is the most important as well as which behaviors are scored the highest and the lowest. Feedback reports were provided to each community leader completing leadership training and the pretest and post test LPI. The report provided information about the five leadership practices measured by the LPI, an explanation of the participant's results, a graph indicating the participant's scores as self evaluated and as evaluated by observers at the beginning of the leadership training and at the end of the training, and suggested strategies for enhancing each of the leadership practices. 3. To provide recommendations to local community leaders on how to enhance their leadership practices. Based on descriptive, ANOVA, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the data, the SELF group showed that enabling others to act was the highest average score, while the PEER group indicated that encouraging the heart was the highest scored dimension. A significant change in the rating scores was found between the pre and post tests for both groups. Based on the results of the analysis, interactive relationships are critical in leading small rural communities. Of critical importance, is developing the skill of bringing together individuals who are all committed to the same purpose and goals for the future of the community. They must be willing to share their ideas and skills collectively for the good of the community. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Development and testing of a revised Leadership Practices Inventory designed for use with rural leaders and leaders of nonprofit organizations provides a psychometrically sound assessment instrument that will improve leadership training programs by continuing the evaluation process of the leadership behavioral patterns of graduates of these programs. Leadership programs can be modified/tailored to meet specific needs of future leaders as social and economic conditions change based upon these assessments. The graduates will become aware of both, their strengths and weaknesses as community leaders. As a result, potential strengthening of rural communities will likely take place in the framework of becoming both economically and socially viable locations for its residents to live. Furthermore, the LPI will help Cooperative Extension personnel, as well as other agencies to enhance leadership training programs in the future by providing participants with evidence of their leadership behaviors before and after training. Based on current findings, these programs can be tailored to meet specific needs of rural communities thus creating the opportunity for such rural communities to prosper both economically and socially in the future.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: 1. Refine the revised LPI and test its structural integrity, reliability and validity. In order to refine the revised Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), the principal investigators (PIs) have administered the revised LPI to groups of leaders going through leadership training across North Carolina and Virginia. The LPI is administered using the 360 process, which involves a pre/post test of the student's leadership behaviors and a pre/post test by three persons who observe the student's leadership behaviors. In collaboration with Virginia Tech and the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service, students in leadership programs in Danville, Galax, and Petersburg, Virginia have completed the LPI. Also two groups of leaders at High Point University, High Point, North Carolina have completed the LPI. To date approximately 60 leaders have completed the LPI. The PIs have continued to correspond with the project consultant from the Center for Creative Leadership on several occasions throughout this past year via personal meetings, email, and telephone conversations. The purpose for these consultations was to refine the testing procedure, letters of introduction, and feedback reports provided to leadership training participants. A number of correspondences to Virginia Tech, Virginia Cooperative Extension Service were made. The primary collaborator from Virginia Tech is Dr. Martha Walker, Community Viability Specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension. The purpose for this ongoing collaboration is to allow Dr. Walker to test the LPI in several leadership programs that she established throughout the State of Virginia. This is an ongoing data collection effort. The researchers continue to seek opportunities to test the LPI with leaders trained through the NC Cooperative Extension Program. To date, no leadership training programs have been implemented in which the LPI could be administered. Contact was made with Pamela Palmer, Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership and Management and Director of the Nonprofit Leadership Enhancement Program, High Point University. The purpose of this contact was to pilot test the revised LPI with a group of community leaders. Additionally, through the Leadership Institute housed at High Point University and directed by Ms. Palmer, the revised LPI has been used with two leadership groups who are participating in the ongoing Nonprofit Leadership Enhancement Program. 2. Develop support materials including a scoring manual and feedback reports. The revised LPI is being field tested. Support materials including a scoring manual and feedback reports have been developed are being used with groups who complete pre and post tests of the LPI. 3. Provide recommendations to local community leaders on how to enhance their leadership practices. This objective will be met toward the end of the project at which time the PIs will have collected data from various leadership programs and appropriate analysis will have been performed. Based on the results of the analysis, recommendations can then be made which can be justified by the statistical evidence from the data collected from participants in their respective community. PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Jane Walker - Co-PI Dr. Benjamin Gray - CO-PI Dr. Cindy McCauly - Consultant, Center for Creative Leadership Dr. Martha Walker - Collaborator, VA Tech University TARGET AUDIENCES: Currently field testing of LPI; no target audience information can be provided at this time. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
The outcome of this project will help to improve leadership training programs by evaluating the leadership behavioral patterns of graduates of these programs. Improvements made to the LPI will eliminate potential problems such as understanding of the questionnaire items and eliminating those items that do not convey strong leadership practices. Furthermore, the instrument will be tailored so that it addresses the behaviors and practices associated with rural community leaders. Such improvements made to the LPI will help Cooperative Extension personnel or other agencies measure the changes in behaviors of leaders who undergo training in leadership sponsored by Extension or other agencies. Because the behaviors of leaders can be measured, leaders will be able to assess their strengths and weaknesses, use this knowledge to work more effectively with other leaders both within and outside their communities, and build the potential of these rural communities as both economically and socially viable locations in which to live.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/09 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: (1) To refine the revised LPI and test its structural integrity, reliability and validity. The revised Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) has been pilot tested with a group of community leaders in Guilford County, NC. Based on the pilot test, the instrument has been further modified and is ready for testing with groups of community leaders. To that end, PIs have actively sought opportunities to inform Cooperative Extension agents about the LPI as a tool for evaluating community leadership practices of community leaders who are engaged in community leadership development programs. One such program is Community Voices (CV). To encourage continued implementation of the CV program, the PIs were invited to attend two regional meetings sponsored by NC A&T Cooperative Extension during this past year, one in the western region of NC and the other was held in the central region. Attending these meetings served to inform Cooperative Extension agents about the project and to provide encouragement to the agents to arrange Community Voices Leadership Training CV Programs in each of their respective counties. These CV programs are a major source of the data collection within NC. Forms were provided to the specialists to complete which indicated their interest in providing CV leadership training in their respective counties. Approximately, 12 forms were received from both meetings. To date, no CV programs have been completed. The PIs have corresponded with the project consultant from the Center of Creative Leadership on several occasions throughout this past year via personal meetings, email, and phone conversations. The purpose for these correspondences was to continue to update and refine the Leadership Practices Inventory. The LPI is now ready for testing. Contact was made with Dr. Martha Walker, Community Viability Specialist with Virginia Tech University. The purpose for this contact was to allow Dr. Walker to test the LPI in several leadership programs that she had established throughout the State of Virginia. This is an ongoing data collection effort. Contact was made with Pamela Palmer, High Point University. The purpose of this contact was to pilot test the revised LPI with a group of community leaders. Additionally, through a Leadership Institute housed at High Point University and directed by Ms. Palmer, the revised LPI has been used with one leadership program that is ongoing. (2) To develop support materials including a scoring manual and feedback reports. The revised LPI is being field tested. Support materials including a scoring manual and feedback reports are in development, as prescribed in the methodology of this project. (3) To provide recommendations to local community leaders on how to enhance their leadership practices. This objective will be met toward the end of the project at which time the PIs will have collected data from various leadership programs and appropriate analysis will have been performed. Based on the results of the analysis, recommendations can then be made which can be justified by the statistical evidence from the data collected from participants in their respective community. PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Jane Walker - Co-PI Dr. Benjamin Gray - CO-PI Dr. Cindy McCauly - Consultant, Center for Creative Leadership Dr. Martha Walker - Collaborator, VA Tech University Dr. Ellen Smoak (retired), Cooperative Extension TARGET AUDIENCES: Currently field testing of LPI; no target audience information can be provided at this time. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The outcome of this project will help to improve leadership training programs by evaluating the leadership behavioral patterns of graduates of these programs. Improvements made to the LPI will eliminate potential problems such as understanding of the questionnaire items and eliminating those items that do not convey strong leadership practices. Furthermore, the instrument will be tailored so that it addresses the behaviors and practices associated with rural community leaders. Such improvements made to the LPI will help Cooperative Extension personnel or other agencies measure the changes in behaviors of leaders who undergo training in leadership sponsored by Extension or other agencies. Because the behaviors of leaders can be measured, leaders will be able to assess their strengths and weaknesses, use this knowledge to work more effectively with other leaders both within and outside their communities, and build the potential of these rural communities as both economically and socially viable locations in which to live.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Modification and testing of a leadership practices inventory (LPI) will be the focus of this project. In a previous project, the first draft of the instrument was tested with rural leaders and factor analysis was performed. For the current study, further revision and refinement of selected questions will be made so that the instrument is psychometrically sound. To that end, problematic questions have been revised and are under review by researchers at the Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, NC. Further review will be conducted with rural leaders. Once the review is complete, the instrument will be used as a pre and post test with rural leaders who are undergoing training in leadership development through The Cooperative Extension Service in North Carolina. The objectives of the study are, (1) To refine the revised LPI and test its structural integrity, reliability and validity; and (2) To develop support materials including a scoring manual and feedback reports. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The leadership practices inventory (LPI) is currently under review and revision. Expected impacts include development of a psychometrically sound instrument to be used in connection with leadership development programs implemented through Cooperative Extension Service or other groups interested in fostering community development.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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