Transformational leadership and its correlation to the effective placement of completers of area career centers in the State of Missouri

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine if there was a correlation between the leadership style of the director of area career centers in the state of Missouri and the placement of career education completers. The survey instrument was the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire version 5X, short form that consisted of 45 selected response questions and three open-ended questions that placed the responses on a five point Likert scale that determined the director's major leadership style. The administration of the survey was online utilizing a leader webpage, developed by Mind Garden Inc. and career center directors, their supervisors, and their staff completed the survey to a 360-degree view of leadership style of the director. The 57 area career centers within one Midwest state were placed on a continuum from high to low based on student placement. The top and bottom 10 schools were selected for the purposeful sample. The research did not discover any correlation between leadership style and the placement of career center graduates. The researcher did discover that the predominant leadership style of the director was transformational which both the supervisor and the staff of the leader validated. The researcher called for further studies into the leadership style of the director utilizing the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (5X) and other Perkins student performance indicators.