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The need for individuals capable of leading change has become pronounced based on the changes occurring within the higher education system. The purpose of this study was to examine if participation in the LEAD21 leadership development program, a national leadership program for faculty emerging as leaders in the land-grant university system, changed participant levels of change leadership. The longitudinal analysis included comparisons across members of three classes in the LEAD21 program, as well as the aggregated data from all three years. Results indicated overall level of change leadership rose by an average of 28.8%. Additionally, the study established benchmarks for pre-program and post-program levels of change leadership. Leadership educators can use the results to inform future leadership education initiatives. Furthermore, the study presents a Leading Change Scale that may be appropriate for future leadership program evaluations. Ongoing evaluations of leadership programs are encouraged.

Engaging learners is one of the most important responsibilities of an educator. Finding opportunities to connect with individuals in a meaningful way is a powerful tool, particularly for leadership educators. The purpose of the study was to determine whether there were any statistically significant relationships between different demographic groups and core self-evaluations among a sample of adult agricultural leadership development program participants. The results of the study found that gender, educational attainment, and geographic region were not statistically significantly related to core self-evaluations. However, there was a statistically significant difference between groups in both the age and organizational level demographic clusters. A recommendation is for educators to use the findings as a starting point to inform learning interventions and to strive to accommodate the needs of individual learners accordingly.

Individuals expected to offer leadership are often chosen based on their power position within the field of interest and specialization in the context area being addressed and not on their leadership style. Leadership education curriculum often focuses on change as a product of leadership and leadership styles but places little emphasis on how the leadership styles of those chosen to lead change can influence the change process. In order to inform the development of curriculum targeting this aspect of leadership, research needs to be done to determine if leadership style impacts level of engagement in change. This research examined how transformational and transactional leadership styles impacted engagement in a national change process when 39 department chairs of universities across the United States were selected by the National Science Foundation to lead science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) educational reform at the undergraduate level. The findings revealed transformational leadership style positively predicted engagement in change and transactional leadership style negatively predicted engagement in change. While the small sample size makes the findings exploratory in nature and should be used with caution, they imply leadership education curriculum should include lessons on the impact these two styles have on engagement in change since there were statistically significant differences.

A census of 23 adult leadership development programs including 2,200 individuals from 262 classes investigated the influence of the group level (class) elements on individual intentions to participate in alumni programming. Individual and group level effects were evaluated, specifically, level of individual and group satisfaction as well as level of individual and group opinion leadership. The results indicate there are group level differences in intentions to participate, albeit small. Additionally, group level satisfaction was a significant positive predictor of intention. Individual satisfaction was found to have a significant positive effect; however, opinion leadership was found to have a significant negative effect on intentions to participate. Finally, group satisfaction was the only significant predictor found when analyzing both individual and group level variables simultaneously.

Policy leadership infiltrates the lives of citizens everywhere. Though this type of leadership is implicit and ubiquitous, a theoretically-based model specifically intended for policy leaders is not readily available in academic literature. This article serves to address this gap by proposing a conceptual model of the policy leadership framework. The model expounds upon previous literature and identifies 16 areas vital to the policy process. Implications of the model relate to equipping leadership educators in the classroom and in the community with enhanced policy leadership research and curriculum.

Although the term interpersonal leadership has been well established within the literature, there remains a dearth of theoretically derived models that specifically address the comprehensive nature of the underlying leader behaviors and activities. The intent of the present article is to attempt to synthesize the existent leadership models, behaviors, and factors to arrive at a coherent conceptual model of interpersonal leadership that can inform efficient and effective leadership education programs. The resulting model included 13 primary factors integrated within a hierarchical framework. Leadership educators are recommended to adopt or adapt the proposed model while developing educational curriculum and interventions.

This study aims to explore the impact of inclusion of victim empathy-based content in offender treatment.

This study first presents a systematic review of 20 papers before proceeding to consider qualitative interviews with therapists (n = 7) and forensic patients (n = 5), who had completed a long-term violence therapy (Life Minus Violence – Enhanced, LMV-E©). The research explored perceptions of forensic patients and treatment facilitators when completing victim empathy work and explored any negative effects this may have.

Findings from the systematic review indicated five themes: interventions incorporating victim empathy can be effective; there are positive risk-understanding consequences from completing victim empathy work; offenders perceive victim empathy positively; the emotional impact of victim empathy work on offenders’ is poorly explored; and completing victim empathy in treatment groups receives mixed evaluations from offenders. The systematic review was used to inform the interview themes for the resulting qualitative study with facilitators and forensic patients. This study indicated six themes: victim empathy content facilitates change; victim empathy content can be difficult for patients; victim empathy content can lead to an emotional response; victim empathy content can be beneficial, with the process important; victim empathy content can help understand risk, and patients’ experience of treatment begins before attending sessions.

The potential impact of victim empathy content needs to be evaluated before sessions are completed, accounting for client expectations and treatment readiness. This should include ensuring that appropriate support is in place. Any support provided to patients should be regularly reviewed.

The study represents the first to apply detailed analysis to this topic area and with a complex group.