Religious Employees/Individual Contributors/Members/Adults
OBJECTIVE The purpose of the study was to determine differences in leadership behaviors between masters-level seminary students at Dallas Theological Seminary based upon selected demographic variables.
METHODOLOGY Every masters-level student at Dallas Theological Seminary was invited to participate, with 330 responding (22% response rate). Respondents completed the Leadership Practices Inventory and provided demographic information. Two-thirds of the respondents were male.
KEY FINDINGS Differences in leadership practices were found on the basis of age for Challenging, Enabling, Modeling and Encouraging. Most of these differences were between students aged 29 or younger and those between 40 to 49 years of age. No significant differences were found on the basis of the student’s prior ministry experience, but differences were found for Challenging, Inspiring and Encouraging on the basis of current ministry experience (number of hours involved). Generally as hours of involved increased so did frequently of leadership behaviors. No differences were found between full-time or part-time students nor between those who had or didn’t have an internship experience, nor between students who had participated in or had lead a spiritual formation small group. Regardless of whether a leadership course had been taken or even the number of leadership classes taken did not result in differences in leadership scores. No differences in leadership practices were reported on the basis of gender or on marital status. This sample engaged in each of the five leadership practices significantly less than those from the Kouzes Posner normative data base.