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An assessment identifying the leadership education needs of three groups of leadership program alumni was developed through focus group interviews. Respondents (386 of 1,063 or 36%) were most interested in training on: engaging others in a common vision, inspiring others, attracting the right people for the task, and influencing others. They preferred to participate in one or two workshops per year. Face-to-face delivery was the format most preferred by respondents with distance-delivery strategies identified as the preferred means by 34% or less, and respondents preferred to pursue regional collaborations in their state. The results will be the basis for advanced leadership development training for alumni of leadership development programs offered through Cooperative Extension. It was recommended that this study be replicated with community leaders that have not participated in formal leadership programs as the basis for developing initial and advanced training needs.

The purpose of this study was to determine degrees of internalization of character traits across two groups (K-12 teachers and Extension staff) with varying years of participation in character education professional and program development activities. An online survey was developed to collect data describing the 109 respondents, the extent of their character education professional and program development activities, and their degrees of internalization and behavioral change. Post-then-pre data comparisons revealed significant levels of change in behaviors, including considering other peoples’ feelings and resolving conflict in a peaceful manner. All post-then-pre data demonstrated that respondents at least frequently lived their lives in accordance with the post-then-pre statements. Recommendations for future research included: marketing character education professional development opportunities to a broader audience; and increasing ongoing and intensive multicultural training of Cooperative Extension staff.

Developmental and prescriptive advising styles have been the focus of the academic advising literature for the past 35 years. Academic advising scholars have called for a new paradigm in the field. Drawing from leadership theory, a new model for academic advising is proposed. Full range advising encompasses laissez-faire, management-by-exception, contingent rewards, and transformational behaviors. The long-term impact of transformational advising is one that will likely take years to fully realize, however measures of transformational leadership are both reliable and valid. These measures can be used to determine whether advisors’ use of transformational advising behaviors is related to positive student outcomes.

The relationship between an individual’s comprehension of his or her role in society, the gender expectations of society, and how these thoughts and stereotypes influence an individual’s behavior in particular settings seem to be separate, yet interrelated. It is for this reason that an analysis of four main theories of gender and leadership must be reviewed for contrasts and comparisons. This paper reviews and analyzes the research literature on Social Role Theory, Implicit Theory, Attribution Theory, and Leader Emergence Theory. Further it draws conclusions and comparisons that will provide recommendations and implications for future research and practice.

Since the days when women first began entering the work force scholars have studied perceived gender differences related to motivation in organizational settings. This paper first presents a brief overview of motivation theory and then examines the literature tracing gender related motivation-to-manage as it evolves through the 1950s and 1960s to the present. Studies have produced conflicting results with some finding that men have more motivation-to-manage then women and other studies finding the opposite. Such differences appear to be small and closely related to subordinate status and role stereotyping.

In this paper the research on gender and Full-Range Leadership is documented and explored. Included is consideration of research that studied Full-Range Leadership directly as well as indirect study that contributed to the field of research on Full-Range Leadership. The paper culminates in a series of recommendations for future research. It is hoped that these will help to move the field from documenting the differences or similarities of leadership (or perceptions of leadership) between women and men, to studying why these differences might exist. Additional recommendations are included that will help transport the value of this research from the pages of scholarly journals into organizations, communities, and the workplace.

Leader-member exchange (LMX) generally refers to the leadership process centered on the interactions between leaders and direct reports. The basic premise of high quality leader-member exchange relationships holds that direct reports gain tremendous benefits through these partnerships. LMX is perhaps the most commonly researched theory of leadership. However, few studies have specifically examined the role of dyad members’ sex as a predictor of quality LMX. Several studies investigating the role of dyad members’ sex and quality LMX examined the effect of sex in an aggregated variable, demographic similarity, which often included other demographic characteristics such as age, education level and race, yielding mixed results. This article’s purpose is to (a) review the evolution of leader-member exchange theory, (b) examine literature regarding potential effects of sex of dyad members on quality leader-member exchanges, and (c) discuss implications and future research concerning the role of dyad members’ sex and leader-member exchanges.

According to a survey of professionals in agricultural education, The Journal of Leadership Education (JOLE) is a new and primary outlet of leadership education research and professional scholarship. The purpose of this study was to assess five years of JOLE’s primary and secondary research theme areas, frequent primary and secondary research themes by year, prolific authorship, and research methods and types using a mixed-methods design. A compilation of the research results is reported. Research themes appear cyclic and add little to improving an apparent lack of research continuity. Research must continue to determine cycle depth and the influence on research in leadership education as an integrated specialization area of agricultural education. This research may be used comparatively with the National Research Agenda to determine where future research should be focused.