Volunteer Administration Leadership Proficiency and Leadership Styles: Perceptions of Southern Region 4-H County Faculty

Abstract

Volunteers play an integral role in supporting the mission of 4-H programs in the southern region. For this reason their proficiency in volunteer administration competence and perceived leadership style is important. The researchers sought to examine both the perceived proficiency of 4-H faculty in the southern region in seven competencies associated with volunteer administration leadership (Stedman, 2004) and perceived leadership style based on Full Range Leadership (Avolio & Bass, 1991). Overall respondents' scores indicated an average proficiency in volunteer administration leadership competence. Yet, their reported scores showed a higher proficiency in the individual competency areas of personal skill and organizational culture. Leadership style was measured based on behavior scores of transformational, transactional, and laissez faire leadership. The 4-H county faculty used transformational leadership most frequently, followed by transactional leadership, and then laissez faire. Implications are 4-H county faculty could use additional professional development opportunities which address accountability and management.

Understanding Principal Investigators’ Differences in Leadership Style and Perceptions of Teamwork to Leverage Leadership Development

“…Across age, there is a wider range of scores, but it appears that the younger PIs of the group also self-perceived more transformational behaviors. This is fairly consistent with literature indicating that organizational tenure (affiliated with age) tends to be more transactional, also represented in this study (Stedman & Rudd, 2005).…”

Transformational Leadership and its Relationship to Adult 4-H Volunteers’ Sense of Empowerment in Youth Development Settings

“…According to Conger and Kanungo (1988) and Jung, Chow, and Wu (2003), transformational leadership clearly provides empowering effects on followers. Transformational leadership style has also been found to be positively related to job satisfaction (Stumpf, 2003), leadership skill competency (Moore, 2003), attainment of funding (Ali, 2005), and volunteer administrative competency (Stedman & Rudd, 2005).…”