Leadership Behaviors and Practices among Executive Women of Color in Higher Education

Higher education is steadily including more women of color in the leadership of the academy. Daily leadership challenges require campus administrators to engage and move others toward exceptional workplace performance. As such, executive women of color must handle complex campus demands and leadership challenges, particularly as they relate to academic excellence, student achievement, and resources management. The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the self-assessed leadership behaviors and practices of executive women of color in higher education according to Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), and the extent to which surveyed executive women of color rise to the level of "high" on each of the five leadership practices scales (Challenging the Process, Inspiring a Vision, Enabling Others to Act, Modeling the Way and Encouraging the Heart) according to Kouzes and Posner standards. Further demographic data was analyzed to determine if there are differences in leadership practices based upon years of service, level of education, and participation in formal leadership training. Using descriptive statistics, this study found that executive women of color employed in higher education practice all five leadership behaviors at a higher level than the database of respondents and study done by Kouzes and Posner. The study also found that executive women of color, across all respondents, practice Challenging the Process leader behavior at a significantly high level, and the Encouraging the Heart leader behavior was a second high leader practice. Executive women of color were lowest in the Inspiring a Shared Vision behavior, as this was the least engaged among all five leadership constructs. The population for this study was executive women of color employed in higher education who held the title of director, dean, or vice president. The sample was collected from attendees of several national and regional meetings in which executive women of color were participants. A total of 45 survey instruments were collected and 34 were used for this study (n=34). Recommendations for future studies were also identified as a result of this research study. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]