Leadership attitudes and practices of resident advisors and hall council leaders

Abstract

This study examined leadership attitudes and the Leadership Practice Inventory scores of University of Wisconsin-Stout resident advisors and hall leaders. Differences in leadership attitudes were examined between the resident advisors and hall council leaders. Also differences in leadership attitudes and on scores on the Leadership Practice Inventory were compared based on gender, academic classification, and other campus leadership roles. The subjects were UW-Stout students who were hall council leaders and Resident Advisors during spring semester of 2000. These students all lived in the Residence Halls at the University of Wisconsin-Stout and ranged in academic classification from freshmen to senior. They completed the survey of leadership attitudes and the leadership practice inventory at a hall council meeting or a resident advisor staff meeting in February 2000. The students were asked to volunteer as participants in the survey. The instrument consisted of three sections. The first part of the instrument was the demographic section. The second section was Leadership Attitudes which were 26 statements developed by the researcher to determine how campus leaders viewed different leadership concepts. The third part of the instrument was the student Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) developed by Kouzes and Posner (1993). The Leadership Practice Inventory focused on leadership behaviors and on the frequency with which the person engaged in those particular behaviors. Data was collected and analyzed using frequency counts and percentages for all items. Mean scores were also used in all three sections of the survey. A t-test on Leadership Attitudes was also done by gender, and current leadership roles from the demographics for the two groups. Differences based on academic classification for the leadership attitudes and Leadership Practices Inventory of the resident advisors and hall council leaders were analyzed by using an ANOVA. Overall, gender among the resident advisors made a difference on some leadership attitudes and on the Leadership Practice Inventory. Women scored the highest on the leadership attitudes and Leadership Practice Inventory. Academic classification also made a difference for the resident advisors. On the whole, gender made a difference on leadership attitudes and the Leadership Practice Inventory among the hall council leaders. Once again women scored the highest on the leadership attitudes and Leadership Practice Inventory. There were no significant differences for hall council leaders based on academic classification on leadership attitudes and Leadership Practice Inventory.