A Study of Two Generations of Culturally Diverse Community College Students Views on Leader Attributes in Self and Others

One community college mission is preparing students for the expectations and opportunities of the workplace including roles as collaborators and leaders. Increasingly, representatives from “cultures” of generation, gender, and diverse ethnicities are gaining an education in community colleges. Research supports that cultural aspects and views of others impact an individual\u27s leader identity. The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental study was to determine if participants representing millennial and generation X self-report leader behaviors of “modeling the way” and “enabling others to act”; and rate leader traits in others responding to “fits my image of a leader;” And to determine if their responses differ significantly by generation, gender, ethnicity. The study population was students enrolled in a public, suburban, Midwestern United States community college which serves 26 culturally diverse communities. The sample consisted of 376 participants enrolled in randomly selected courses. Descriptive statistics and a between groups factorial multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) are reported. The research data indicates there were no statistically significant cultural differences in the reports of respondents rating leader attributes in self and leader traits in others. This data serves in recognizing commonalities and differences within culturally diverse groups; and opening dialogue for leader development in a community college