Leadership Styles and Moral Judgment Competence of Community College Personnel.

Abstract

This study investigated the convergence of leadership styles and moral judgment competence of community college personnel participating in a leadership institute using the Leadership Orientation Instrument (Bolman & Deal, 1984) and the Moral Judgment Test (Lind, 1978). Results indicated that the human resource and structural frames were the two dominant frames as measured by the Leadership Orientation Instrument (LOI). The participants scored in the low to moderate range on the Moral Judgment Test (MJT). When comparing the results for both instruments, there was only a medium negative correlation found between the MJT scores and the human resource frame and a weak negative correlation between the MJT score and the structural, political, and symbolic frames. These data points suggest that as a frame became more dominant there was a slight decrease in the MJT score. Background Using results from an employee campus climate study that was conducted in 2003, Pitt Community College implemented a professional development program entitled the Leadership Institute. A balanced committee of faculty and staff developed three simple goals and program components for the first Leadership Institute in 2004. The goals of the Leadership Institute were to: 1. Promote college coherence and cross departmental interaction. 2. Develop leadership characteristics and skills among employees using research-based assessments. 3. Examine emerging issues facing Pitt Community College through case study analysis. An important distinction was made between leadership characteristics which are traits or the behaviors and leadership skills which are technical capabilities that enable the employee to execute the tasks. These goals support the research of Carter and Rudd (2000), Ebbers and Friedel (2003), Fulton-Calkins and Milling (2005) and the American Association of Community Colleges (2005) who suggest that with the ebb and flow of employee turnover, community colleges should employ leadership development programs designed to grow leadership competencies and skills to help faculty and staff develop their professional sets of leadership skills to address the emerging issues facing the organization. Pitt Community College, one of the 58 community colleges that constitute the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS), is a publicly supported institution that employs over 420 full time faculty and staff who teach and serve over 9,000 credit and 24,000 non-credit students. The College offers over 60 degree programs. The College graduated over 1100 students during the 2011-2012 academic year. The Leadership Institute is open to all full time employees and over 270 employees have participated in the program since its inception. All levels of employees (administrative, administrative support, faculty, and technical/campus operations) have participated in the program. Participation is based upon a competitive application process. A four to five member faculty and staff planning team, supported by the Office of the President, develop the Institute's agenda and all learning experiences, coordinate venue selection and on site program management, markets the program, evaluates the applications, and recommends participants to the President. From 2004 to 2008, each Leadership Institute cohort was made up of approximately 50 participants. Citing a need to provide more depth to program components, the planning committee in 2009 reduced the cohort size to approximately 30 participants. This cohort size has proven optimal as it has encouraged participants to engage in an in-depth self-analysis and address the emerging issues surrounding the College. The three goals of the Leadership Institute have remained constant over the past eight years as participant evaluations have validated the need for and relevancy of these goals. One hallmark of the Leadership Institute is the utilization of experienced external higher education professionals to moderate and provide specific instruction on the frames of leadership and moral development, The College has worked collaboratively with faculty leaders from the College of Education at East Carolina University to fulfill this important function. …

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