A comparative study of public college and university presidential perceptions of effective leadership practices

Leadership has evolved through a variety of theories, definitions, and metaphors over the last century. Organizations, such as colleges and universities, have been influential in this leadership evolution. As such, college and university presidents have had significant influence on the phenomenon of leadership. One purpose of this study was to explore variations in public college and university presidential reports of their leadership practices as a function of institutional type and and as a function of the selected personal classification variables of race, age, gender, academic background, and years of experience. A second purpose was to compare public college and university presidential reports of their leadership practices to senior leaders of other organizations reports of their leadership practices. The sample of this study consisted of 400 college and university presidents who currently serve six distinguishable types of institutions. A 25% stratified random sampling technique was used to select the institutions for the research sample. Data were collected through the use of two instruments. First, the Leadership Practices Inventory-Self