Conclusions and Implications
Although Kouzes and Posner’s (2007) research focused on leadership in organizations, the content analyses of the focus groups and interview data from this study revealed a relationship between leadership practices and behaviors of the community leaders and the five themes developed by Kouzes and Posner (see Table 2). The themes that seem more closely aligned with the behaviors and practices of community leaders were Inspiring a Shared Vision, Enabling Others to Act, Modeling the Way, and Encouraging the Heart. The leaders were less likely to talk about ways in which they “Challenged the Process,” but for each of the five practices, community leaders provided strong evidence that they engage in these behaviors as they work in their respective communities. Based on this study, one can infer that an assessment tool that measures a leadership program participant’s understanding and acceptance of these behaviors would be an effective tool for measuring the impact of a leadership development program.
These findings provide a first step in the development of such an assessment instrument. The findings suggest that the Kouzes and Posner’s instrument, the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) can be modified to become an assessment tool for use with community group leaders. Such an instrument would focus on the behaviors or actions of leaders in community settings and would enable program facilitators to measure the impact of their programs on the leaders they serve. The researchers have obtained permission from Kouzes and Posner to modify the LPI for use with community leaders and have undertaken to develop such an instrument. The modified instrument has been used and tested, but additional testing is required to assure that the modified instrument is psychometrically sound.
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