Higher Education Students
OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which college-level members of the Millennial Generation perceive themselves as creative and if there is a relationship between creativity and leadership potential.
METHODOLOGY The research survey was launched using two different collection devices, both based on the Facebook social network site. The first collection device was connected to a link sent to friends through Facebook’s network. The surveys collected through this collection devise garnered 55 responses. The second collector counted the number of responses to an ad placed on Facebook, targeting 18-24 year olds. Additionally, the replies to the ad were counted in the Facebook account, which garnered 112 survey responses (from 3,329 actual clicks to the ad link). The survey was available for 60 days collecting responses into the SurveyMonkey survey site. From the two collectors, there were 167 total responses of which 25 percent of the responses came from friends on Facebook and 75 percent were responses to the ad. The final useable, complete surveys filtered by age totaled 106. Respondents completed the Student version of the Leadership Practices Inventory and the Scale of Creative Attributes and Behaviors (Kelly, 2004). All of the respondents were between the ages of 18-24, most were female (66%), studying either business/communications (26%) or psychology/sociology (16%), and either in their first or second year of college (46%).
KEY FINDINGS Respondents’ total leadership score (all 30 statements) was not significantly correlated with any of the six measures of creativity. They reported engaging most frequently in Enable and Encourage, followed by Inspire, Model and Challenge.
No significant differences were found on the basis of gender for any of the five leadership practices. Year in school and respondent age were significantly correlated (positive) with Model and Inspire (as well as correlated with one another).