In the last few decades, the world has witnessed an unparalleled increase in
human longevity, accompanied by more years of employment and declining birth rates.
These unusual events have dramatically raised the portion of older employees who are
still active in the global labor force. Scholars have recognized that, along with the overall
aging of the workforce, older individuals will increasingly occupy leadership positions.
Since the current knowledge economy promotes a globalized, competitive, and rapidly
evolving educational and business environment, organizational leaders are increasingly
facing challenges to keep their leadership knowledge base current. Organizational
leaders must attract and retain the best human capital, competent individuals who can act
strategically to move their organizations forward. Consequently, it is prudent to believe
that, in order to face the new challenges of an aging work force, organizations will
require exceptional leaders to maintain a cohesive organizational system in which diverse generational cohorts may interact and work together efficiently and effectively.
Using leadership identity theory, dynamic capabilities, and the leadership trait
approach as the conceptual framework, this study assessed intergenerational perceptions
of the importance of seven leadership traits: intelligence, decisiveness, compassion,
innovation, organization, ambition, and honesty using a national sample of almost two
thousand adults in the United States representing four generational cohorts: Millennials,
Generation X, Baby Boomers, and the Silent generation. This quasi-experimental
quantitative study sought to identify the differences in perception of the importance of
leadership traits that each of these generational cohorts may have and the interaction that
gender and educational level may have on generational cohort perceptions of the
importance of leadership traits.
Descriptive statistical analysis and comparative analyses including one-way and
two-way ANOVA were conducted to determine any statistically significant differences in
means among the differences in means of the perception of the importance of leadership
traits among generational cohorts moderated by gender and educational level.
Statistically significant findings for some, but not all, of the seven leadership traits
included in this study were found by generational cohort and these differences were
moderated by gender and educational level. Implications and recommendations for
policy, practice, and future research are offered. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_40928 |
| Contributors | Hidrowoh, Jacob R. (author), Shockley, Robert (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 127 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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