Examining the Relationship Between Goal Orientation and Individual Characteristics Amongst Agricultural Leadership Development Program Participants

Abstract

The importance of knowing and employing strategies to effectively motivate learners is well established. This is also true for leadership educators that have a mandate to build leadership capacity amongst learners in various environments. However, despite the importance of learner motivation in learning environments, there has been a lack of empirical studies to determine if there may be dispositional trends related to motivational tendencies based on demographic categories, specifically within adult agricultural leadership development program participants. The current study analyzed goal orientation disposition across demographic categories including gender, age, organizational level, educational attainment, and geographic region amongst alumni of adult agricultural leadership development programs. The results indicate there are trends related to demographic categories leadership educators may consider using as entry points to more effectively motivate learners based on dispositional tendencies. For example, the results imply desire to prove competence relative to peers decreases with age. Therefore, a recommendation for educators would be to target strategies fostering healthy competition towards younger learners and target strategies providing opportunities for learning and personal reflection towards older learners. Additionally, a significant non-finding is goal orientation, not influenced by cognitive ability, is independent of educational attainment. A recommendation then is for educators to not base motivational strategies on cognitive ability or educational attainment. Further research is needed to extend the results of the present study to a much larger population of adults engaged in agriculture across the globe.

Academic Goal Orientation: New Insights and Cultural Adaptation of Academic Goal Orientation Questionnaire into the Turkish Language

“…A reasonable ground for this isolation is that many recent studies have been published investigating the relationships between the construct of goal orientation and self-efficacy (Curelaru, 2020); goal orientation and emotional intelligence and burnout (Supervía et al, 2020a); goal orientation and engagement and self-concept (Supervía et al, 2020b); goal orientation and emotional intelligence and burnout (Supervía and Bordás, 2020); goal orientation and positive coping strategy and motivational beliefs (Subaşı, 2020); goal orientation and academic achievement (Giota and Bergh, 2020;Moghimi, 2020); goal orientation and individual characteristics (Lamm et. al., 2020); and goal orientation and motivation (Hidajat et al, 2020).…”

Exploring Relationships Between Goal Orientation and Conflict Management Capacity Development in Agricultural Leadership Development Program Participants

“…Currently, only one study (Lamm et al, 2020a) linking goal orientation and agricultural-related leadership development programming exists. Lamm et al (2020a) found that adult learners' goal orientation disposition may be correlated with demographics such as age and status in the organization.…”

“…Currently, only one study (Lamm et al, 2020a) linking goal orientation and agricultural-related leadership development programming exists. Lamm et al (2020a) found that adult learners' goal orientation disposition may be correlated with demographics such as age and status in the organization. A statistically significant correlation was found between age and PGO-P, implying that older employees may not feel the pressure to prove themselves as much as they once did thanks to their years of experience.…”

“…It has also been shown that experience, in the form of leadership training, also increases one's conflict management capacity (Lamm et al, 2020b). Additionally, comfort with failure and risktaking is also more significant the more advanced one becomes in an organization's hierarchy; in other words, PGO-A decreases (Lamm et al, 2020a). Job experience, and not simply age-related experience, may help employees see failure from an LGO perspective, or growth mindset (Dweck, 2016).…”

“…Job experience, and not simply age-related experience, may help employees see failure from an LGO perspective, or growth mindset (Dweck, 2016). On the other hand, someone at a different place in an organizational hierarchy is more likely to exhibit PGO-A due to fear of failure, lack of experience, and/or lack of job security (Lamm et al, 2020a); such trepidation can also relate to someone avoiding conflict. In addition to seeing the importance of experience being capitalized on in leadership development efforts for adult learners, it is also important to connect the concept of taking (or not taking) risks with conflict management.…”