The traditional engineering career has been defined by two career paths: technical and managerial. An entry level engineer typically did not elect his/her career path until at least five years into a career. This meant that only a portion of engineers needed to learn management and leadership skills and then usually not until in the professional environment. Since this career distinction was not made until years into an engineer's professional life universities were not developing leadership/management skills in their students. Times have changed. With the globalization of the economy, and the increased competition in the marketplace, companies have realized that they need entry level engineers that are capable of working on multi-functional and multi-cultural teams,leading small work groups, and understanding the business and societal impact of engineering decisions. These skills are so critical that every engineer, regardless of their chosen track will need them to have a successful career. Universities are now being pressured to develop these skills in all of their engineering students. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the difficulties experienced by engineers as they transition into formal management positions in order to help universities and industry direct their efforts in the development of key leadership/management skills. The survey used for this study was centered on two works of research. The first is research conducted by Allen Howard for his PhD dissertation in which he identifies 9 common points of difficulty, or pain points, experienced by engineers transitioning into management. The second is a managerial aptitude test developed by Hans Thamhain. The survey was distributed to 220 engineering managers at a large engineering company. The results of the survey were statistically analyzed and significant results were found among a number of factors. Among the independent variables found to significantly affect the transition were engineering discipline, graduate degrees, one's managerial aptitude, the reason one chose to enter management, and graduation year. Perhaps the most beneficial result is that one pain point was found to be highly correlated to every other pain point.

Yes / This article explores gender and entrepreneurial leadership, notably the meanings female entrepreneurs ascribe to notions of entrepreneurial leadership. Drawing from interviews with female business owners, the article questions the dominant hegemonic masculine entrepreneurial leadership model as well as that reportedly associated with women. Research findings illuminate the fluidity and variability of the entrepreneurial leadership construct. Our feminist poststructural lens and critical leadership stance adds new insight into the multiple subjectivities of entrepreneurs and surfaces contradiction and tension that shape the very sense of their entrepreneurial selves. By questioning accepted knowledge, this research offers new perspectives on the multiple realities of entrepreneurial leadership, which should be heeded by policy makers, academics and practitioners alike.

Yes / This paper develops a theory of the subjectivity of the leader through the philosophical lens of Hegel’s master/slave dialectic and its recent interpretation by the philosopher Judith Butler. This is used to analyse the working life history of a man who rose from poverty to a leadership position in a large company and eventually to running his own successful business. Hegel’s dialectic is foundational to much Western thought, but in this paper, I rashly update it by inserting a leader in between the master, whose approval the leader needs if s/he is to sustain self-hood, and the follower, who becomes a tool that the leader uses when trying to gain that elusive approval. The analysis follows the structure of Butler’s reading of the Dialectic and develops understanding of the norms that govern how leaders should act and the persons they should be. Hard work has become for leaders an ethical endeavour, but they grieve the sacrifice of leisure. They enjoy a frisson of erotic pleasure at their power over others but feel guilt as a result. They must prove their leadership skills by ensuring their followers are perfect employees but at the same time must prove their followers are poor workers who need their continued leadership. This leads to the conclusion that the leader is someone who is both powerful and powerless. This analysis is intended not to demonize leaders, but to show the harm that follows the emphasis on leadership as a desirable and necessary organizational function.

With the renewal of interest in nuclear energy as a green energy source, battery plant manufacturing for electric vehicles, and semiconductor fabrication plant construction, it is necessary to address the evolution of complacency as it relates to industrial facility leadership and the widespread reduction in force of essential critical infrastructure workers. As a skilled craft person in the piping trades, with almost two decades of experience in mechanical construction, ten of those years as a nuclear worker, and as a traveling pipefitter working at chemical, refinery, and gasification plants, I am intimately aware of the behaviors, practices, and procedures inherent to these industrial facilities. This personal and professional experience, in addition to gatekeeper status, affords me access to a diverse craft base and corporate leadership. Because of this atypical positioning, I am capable of discerning variances in standard procedures and protocols, changing conditions and manpower shortfalls. Qualitative research methods, including interviews, public documentation, and information from industry organizations, such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, are all employed to collect this information. My research addresses the industrial events that are detrimental to human security due to corporate leadership's role in complacency, which includes its involvement in understaffing and temporary manpower practices, in tandem with human performance and escalated risk behaviors.

Within the university system, student organizations have historically had multiple positive influences on the students who choose to participate in them. This study looked at a particular banner organization in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky. Using the Social Change Model of Leadership Development theory as a backbone, a survey was created to evaluate the impact UK CAFE Ambassador Program has on its participants, as well as to identify avenues for improvement. This is a program that seeks to represent the college through recruitment and to develop student leaders through soft skill building. After surveying current and past ambassadors, there is overwhelming evidence that the UK CAFE Ambassador Program has positively impacted the students whether it was through skills building, networking, or college experience.

This in-country grounded theory study examined the lived experiences of 24 Chinese returnees who completed advanced degrees in the United States. The study found that the four types of organizations in mainland China determine the social context of the application of Western education of the Chinese returnees. Returnees working in multinational corporations apply their Western education more than the returnees working in the other types of organizations. Themes that revolved around the international educational experiences of the Chinese students, including the development of cultural intelligence and new understanding of the ‘other’, and their realization of the differences between their home and host cultures, are included in the findings of this study. The relationship between these themes has led to the construction of a new concept concerning their self-cultivation that, in the Chinese perspective, is integral to Chinese leadership. This study introduces the concept of the bridger as a role that some Chinese returnees take on within their Chinese organizations and the third space that bridgers occupy.

This paper examines the relationship between female participation in top management and on corporate boards and firm financial performance. Over the last few decades, the presence of women in the labor force has increased drastically, but the same level of growth is not apparent in top management and on corporate boards. The impact women in top leadership positions have on firm value is investigated in this paper using financial measures of stock price growth, return on equity, and current ratio. The study finds that gender positively impacts financial performance. Additionally, the paper examines whether the presence of women affects acquisition-related activity in a company. Gender stereotyping leads to perceptions that women are less aggressive in business dealings than men are. This paper shows that there is no significant relationship between gender and aggression. Finally, I investigate the impact the presence of a female CEO or Chairman of the board has on the level of women in top leadership in the company. Current literature refers to a “glass ceiling” that occurs for women, which makes it difficult for them to get to the very top. The existence of male-dominated connections and networks might prohibit women from getting promoted. Does that change when the top leadership of the company is a woman? This research suggests that there is, in fact, a positive relationship between female leaders and female participation. This indicates the need for more mentorship and guidance for women as they progress through their careers, as well as a change in hiring policies. Procedures that take into consideration the talent that women have to offer could lead to improved financial success and increased female participation.

Community colleges are challenged to find their next set of leaders who can respond to the diverse challenges of leading the institution. This study examined the impact of institutional and personal factors on faculty aspirations to leadership roles within the community college through the utilization of the Social Cognitive Career Theory framework. A case study research design utilizing mixed-methods investigated the perceived and preferred organizational culture(s) and the manner in which institutional and personal factors influence faculty aspirations to assume leadership roles at Southcentral Kentucky Community and Technical College. The findings of the research indicate that affecting change and being asked to lead are personal factors of influence that motivate faculty to aspire to formal leadership positions within the community college. On the other hand, the challenge of formal leadership roles, family and work-life balance might dissuade faculty aspirations of faculty to formal leadership roles. The study reveals that organizational culture was a positive factor of institutional influence. This study advances the field of educational leadership in that a number of personal and institutional factors influence the aspirations of faculty as they consider movement into formal leadership position within the community college. The findings identify the need for research across multiple institutions and the need to expand Social Cognitive Career Theory to include personal-cognitive barriers of race and gender.

Since the inception of the school counseling profession, the role of school counselors has evolved in response to the social, political, and economic needs of society (Ergüner-Tekinalp, Leuwerke, & Terzi, 2009). Currently, the role of school counselors is to address the personal, social, academic, and career needs of students through a comprehensive development program (American School Counseling Association, ASCA, 2005). In school settings, counselors who are satisfied with their work are more effective in caring for clients and students (DeMato & Curcio, 2004). In recent years, administrators, including those working in school settings, have been called on to reassess the manner in which they lead, since leadership has an effect on the performance of employees and the functions of the institution (Armstrong, MacDonald, & Stillo, 2010; Luthans, 2002b). The present study assessed school counselors’ perceptions of their administrators’ leadership styles (i.e., positive, transformational, transactional, and passive-avoidant) and the relationship between those perceptions and school counselors’ job experience (i.e., job satisfaction, feelings of mattering, and overall wellness). Administrators’ leadership styles were grouped for statistical purposes into two groups: 1) transformational and positive and 2) transactional and passive-avoidant. School counselors’ job experience was assessed through three interrelated variables that included job satisfaction, mattering (i.e., mattering to administrators and mattering to teachers), and overall wellness. In this study, administrators’ positive and transformational leadership styles, transactional and passive-avoidant administrator leadership styles, and school counselors’ job satisfaction, wellness, and mattering were correlated. Additionally, administrator leadership styles had the largest variance in school counselors’ job satisfaction, mattering, and wellness scores.

Leadership Development Programs (LDPs) programs are employed by firms globally in different multiple manners that are aimed at accelerating the development and growth of highly capable candidates. Among these candidates, depending on the particular LDP, may be those possess engineering skills typically afforded through engineering education as measured by completion of an engineering degree. Infrastructure reductions might be afforded corporations if multiple LDPs could be supplanted with one program such as an Engineering Leadership Development Program. In practice, however, economic constraints limited the total sample population of this category to 67 (48 with engineering degrees and 15 without). Employing SPSS Sample Power 3, based on the pilot testing for CPMs, 113 subjects per group (with and without engineering degrees - totaling 226) would be required to yield a power of 80%, and of the 350 received completed surveys received, CPMs meeting the desired criteria accounted for only 63 (18%) of the total number of rated organizational leaders. Consequently, while all testing included the CPM group, the scope was expanded to also include managers with and without PMI certifications as well as managers with and without engineering degrees. The first research hypothesis was Ho: There is no affiliation amongst Transformational Leadership (TL) and engineering education. Thus, the author’s aim is to determine the role, if any, that engineering education plays in perceived leadership style as exhibited by CPMs and non-CPMs holding engineering degrees (e.g. EE, ME, IE, etc.) versus the same without engineering degrees. A secondary goal is to determine, within the management category, which style (transformational or transactional) serves as the dominant style of leadership. With this in mind, the independent variable, CPMs with and without engineering degrees, was operationally defined consistent with this Project.