Higher Education Managers/Executives/Administrators
OBJECTIVE To develop a model leadership continuing education plan for health science college presidents to assist them in improving and expanding their effective leadership practices.
METHODOLOGY The sample consisted of 17 health science and 19 career technical college presidents (73% response rate). Each respondent completed the LPI-Self and an institutional/presidential questionnaire designed by the author, along with demographic information. Nearly three-fourths of these presidents represented two-year institutions, with on average about 50 FTE faculty, and enrollments ranging between 100 and 1000 students. Fifty-nine percent of the health science college presidents and 26 percent of the career technical college presidents were female.
KEY FINDINGS LPI scores from health science and career technical college presidents were relatively similar. Compared with LPI normative data these college presidents generally scored themselves among the top one-third of all respondents for Challenging, Inspiring, Modeling and Enabling. They were about at the mean on Encouraging. These college presidents rated strategic planning and finance/business as managerial competencies most needed into the future.
The author concludes: "information derived from both the literature and the normative process indicates that leadership development is ongoing and more often successful if based on the individual's learning style preferences. The members of the normative groups separately concurred that a program plan which allowed the participants to modify their learning goals and activities would be more acceptable to presidents of health science colleges who continuously faced changing student markets and health care delivery patterns" (p. 115). A model self-directed leadership development plan is included in an appendix.