Leadership Education Reconsidered: Examining Self-Perceived Leadership Styles and Motivation Sources Among Undergraduate Leaders

This study examined the relationships between undergraduate leaders’ self-perceptions of their transformational and transactional leadership behaviors and their sources of work motivation. The sample was comprised of 145 elected and appointed leaders at a mid-west university. The survey included both the Motivation Sources Inventory and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Other survey items collected demographic and leadership-experience data. Participants overall scored higher for transformational self-perceived behaviors than for transactional, and higher for intrinsic motivation than extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation related positively to transformational self-perceived behaviors, and extrinsic motivation related positively to transactional self-perceived behaviors. By understanding undergraduates’ self-perceptions of their leadership behaviors and motivation, models and methods can be developed to foster and strengthen perspectives that embrace situational application of transformational and transactional behaviors