Perceptions of Leadership: An Analysis of College Students\u27 Understandings of the Concept of Leadership

Colleges and universities increasingly have embraced the goal of developing students\u27 leadership capacity. Diverse curricular and co-curricular leadership programs currently exist and continue to be developed to address leadership development outcomes. There is, however, limited understanding of how college students think about and define leadership. This study sought to fill this gap in the research by examining the ways in which college students understand the concept of leadership. In this mixed methods study the researcher analyzed data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) project, a national research study on college student leadership and the college experience. Data for the MSL were collected through an online survey with over 91,000 undergraduate college student respondents from 101 diverse U.S. colleges and universities. For this dissertation, participants were selected through random criterion sampling from the national dataset in order to have a sample that reflected a substantial number of men and women from different racial backgrounds. The online survey generated data about a variety of demographic and environmental variables and an open-ended response prompt, which asked participants to provide their definition of leadership. The data were analyzed qualitatively and then quantitatively. The qualitative analysis entailed thematic content analysis procedures to identify different themes of leadership definitions. The different definitional themes then served as the dependent variables in loglinear analysis and logistic regression to determine demographic and environmental variables associated with the definitions. The study resulted in 10 leadership themes. Four of the themes reflected leader and follower/group relationships, three reflected leader characteristics and behaviors, and three reflected outcomes of leadership. Overall, students\u27 themes tended to be more hierarchical and leader-centric understandings of leadership. Significant differences emerged in students\u27 leadership themes by gender, race, and age. Additionally, a number of environmental variables emerged as significant predictors for the themes. Implications from this study suggest that administrators and faculty should clearly identify the values of leadership they wish to develop in their students and purposefully examine the leadership programs and opportunities available to students with particular attention to how leadership is presented, promoted, and modeled

Developing Intercultural Competence in Future Student Affairs Professionals through a Graduate Student Global Study Course to Doha, Qatar

This paper describes a 2-week global study course to Doha, Qatar for graduate students in the higher education leadership and student affairs program at the University of San Diego. The course sought to develop intercultural competence with a specific focus on understanding Qatari and Middle Eastern perspectives and culture, understanding the unique challenges in higher education student affairs for Qatar and other Middle Eastern countries, and identifying ways for students to apply learning from the course to student affairs practice. These learning outcomes are discussed in the context of the profession of student affairs and the University of San Diego and its Catholic mission. An overview of the global course components is presented along with student and instructor reflections of learning from the course. Challenges from the course are discussed followed by recommendations for similar global study courses

The role of research and scholarship in the professionalisation of student affairs

In this article the authors first explicate a particular conception of the occupational sociology term ‘professional’ and engage in a short discussion of how student affairs as a field conforms to the definition, and ways in which it might benefit from some intentional reframing. Attention is next directed to the definition of what the authors call scholarly practice and its interaction with scholarly outlets such as journals, conference proceedings and professional development. Reflecting the now longstanding call for student affairs and academic affairs professionals to unite in service of facilitating student development and learning, the authors propose a set of guiding values for student affairs administrators that promote data- and theory-based intentionality of practice. These guiding values also require continual professional reflection and renewal, including actively interacting with journals and other peer-reviewed professional outlets. Particular attention is given throughout the article to the pivotal role to be played at this time in the development of the student affairs profession by the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa

The role of research and scholarship in the professionalisation of student affairs

In this article the authors first explicate a particular conception of the occupational sociology term ‘professional’ and engage in a short discussion of how student affairs as a field conforms to the definition, and ways in which it might benefit from some intentional reframing. Attention is next directed to the definition of what the authors call scholarly practice and its interaction with scholarly outlets such as journals, conference proceedings and professional development. Reflecting the now longstanding call for student affairs and academic affairs professionals to unite in service of facilitating student development and learning, the authors propose a set of guiding values for student affairs administrators that promote data- and theory-based intentionality of practice. These guiding values also require continual professional reflection and renewal, including actively interacting with journals and other peer-reviewed professional outlets. Particular attention is given throughout the article to the pivotal role to be played at this time in the development of the student affairs profession by the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa.Keywords: professions, professionalism, professional development, student affairs administration, intentionality, scholarly practice, student affairs professional competency area

Measuring the SUSY Mass Scale at the LHC

An effective mass scale Meffsusy for supersymmetric particles is defined and techniques for its measurement at the LHC discussed. Monte Carlo results show that, for jets + ETmiss events, a variable constructed from the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of all reconstructed jets together with ETmiss provides in most cases the most accurate model independent measurement of Meffsusy (intrinsic precision ~ 2.1 % for mSUGRA models). The overall precision with which Meffsusy could be measured after given periods of LHC running and for given classes of SUSY models is calculated. The technique is extended to measurements of the total SUSY particle production cross section sigmasusy.Comment: 17 pages with 5 Encapsulated Postscript figure

Cocurricular Involvement, Formal Leadership Roles, and Leadership Education: Experiences Predicting College Student Socially Responsible Leadership Outcomes

This thesis explored gender differences in socially responsible leadership outcomes and the extent to which cocurricular involvement, holding formal leadership roles, and participating in leadership programs contributed to these outcomes. This study utilized the Input-Environment-Outcome model and the social change model. Data was collected from a random sample of 3410 undergraduates at the University of Maryland through the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership. Participants completed a web-based survey that included the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale-Revised2. Data was analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance to identify outcome gender differences and hierarchical multiple regression to identify the extent to which environmental variables of this study contributed to outcomes. Women scored significantly higher than men in five of eight outcome measures. Each environmental variable emerged as significant for at least one outcome, and involvement in student organizations was the most common environmental variable. Results from this study provide implications for practice and future research

The Enduring and Elusive Quest for a General Theory of Leadership: Initial Efforts and New Horizons

When the idea of convening a group of scholars to formulate a general theory of leadership was first proposed, one of those who eventually became a key member remarked that the idea of such a project was \u27quixotic\u27. Professor Joanne Ciulla used the term exactly as it is defined - as the American Heritage Dictionary (2009) has it, \u27idealistic or romantic without regard to practicality.\u27 What a charming, silly idea. And in the end, the quest and idealism endures but the goal of a general theory remains elusive. However, as Ciulla herself documents, we went far, and learned a great deal along the way

Measurements in SUGRA Models with Large tan beta at LHC

We present an example of a scenario of particle production and decay in supersymmetry models in which the supersymmetry breaking is transmitted to the observable world via gravitational interactions. The case is chosen so that there is a large production of tau leptons in the final state. It is characteristic of large tan beta in that decays into muons and electrons may be suppressed. It is shown that hadronic tau decays can be used to reconstruct final states.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

Lepton Flavor Violation at the LHC

Recent results from Super Kamiokande suggest $\nu_\mu-\nu_\tau$ mixing and hence lepton flavor violation. In supersymmetric models, this flavor violation may have implications for the pattern of slepton masses and mixings. Possible signals for this mixing in the decays of sleptons produced at the LHC are discussed. The sensitivity expected is compared to that of rare decays such as $\tau\to \mu\gamma$.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Heavy Neutral Gauge Bosons at the LHC in an Extended MSSM

Searching for heavy neutral gauge bosons Z', predicted in extensions of the Standard Model based on a U(1)' gauge symmetry, is one of the challenging objectives of the experiments carried out at the Large Hadron Collider. In this paper, we study Z' phenomenology at hadron colliders according to several U(1)'-based models and in the Sequential Standard Model. In particular, possible Z' decays into supersymmetric particles are included, in addition to the Standard Model modes so far investigated. We point out the impact of the U(1)' group on the MSSM spectrum and, for a better understanding, we consider a few benchmarks points in the parameter space. We account for the D-term contribution, due to the breaking of U(1)', to slepton and squark masses and investigate its effect on Z' decays into sfermions. Results on branching ratios and cross sections are presented, as a function of the MSSM and U(1)' parameters, which are varied within suitable ranges. We pay special attention to final states with leptons and missing energy and make predictions on the number of events with sparticle production in Z' decays, for a few values of integrated luminosity and centre-of-mass energy of the LHC.Comment: 53 pages, 23 figures, 25 tables. One Feynman diagram fixed, results and conclusions unchange