Agricultural Leadership Development Program Participant Personality and Demographic Characteristics: An Empirical Analysis

Although personality has been widely studied within the academic literature, there has been little research into the relationship between personality and leadership development programs, particularly within an agricultural context for adult learners. The purpose of this research was to investigate the nature of relationships among ten aspects of the Big Five personality factors and demographic characteristics including: gender, age, organizational level, educational attainment, and geographic region within a sample of adult agricultural leadership development program participants. Results of the study indicate that there are differences between demographic groups relative to specific aspects of personality. Among the ten aspects analyzed, the most statistically significant differences between groups were observed between age groups, while the fewest statistically significant differences were observed in the educational attainment and geographic region groups. Effect sizes were also calculated with gender having the largest observed effect sizes and age having the largest number of statistically significant effect sizes.

An exploration of graduate level agricultural leadership course descriptions

Since its introduction into agricultural education programs in the 1970s, agricultural leadership has continued to change due to the needs of students and trends within the field (Cletzer et al., 2020; Jones, 2004; Williams, 2007). A single research question guided the study: What is the nature of graduate agricultural leadership courses offered in the United States? This study utilized a qualitative content analysis to capture the meanings, emphasis, and themes of agricultural leadership graduate course descriptions. The frame for this research was established by consulting the American Association of Agricultural Educators member list. University course catalogs were reviewed, and all graduate coursework offered by the agricultural education departments of the identified institutions that included any of the following terms in the title were noted: (a) lead, (b) leader, and (c) leadership. A total of 62 courses from 11 institutions met the criteria. The findings clustered the courses into 21 categories, further compiled into six themes: (1) individual-level focus, (2) organizational-level focus, (3) societal-level focus, (4) professional focus, (5) methodological focus, (6) developmental focus. The findings and recommendations should be considered by agricultural leadership educators as they evaluate how to most appropriately grow their academic programs and coursework.

Cultivating Generative Connection Through Agricultural Leadership

Adult agricultural leadership programs (ALP) address the needs of a diversifying society with pressing social, economic, environmental, and political challenges. Additionally, these programs offer transformative learning experiences that lead to a greater capacity of current and prospective leaders to become change agents in their communities. Our aging society generates a novel opportunity to reframe experiences of professional succession and retirement within the agricultural sector. In a profession where vitality, strength, and perseverance are fundamental, the agricultural industry needs leaders who remain aware of the foundational knowledge contributed by their predecessors. At the same time, it also necessitates innovation that may revolutionize the farming industry for decades to come. In this mixed-method study, we asked participants of an ALP in the Southeastern region of the U.S. to complete the Loyola Generativity Scale (N=45). Survey results (N=45; 60% response rate) indicated average overall generative (40.3; 40-41 scale average) concern. However, there was a considerable variation among participants, scores ranging from 25-57 (scale range 20-55). To understand the range of attitudes, we conducted interviews (N=10) to represent the distribution of scores by varying ages (M=38), gender, and educational background. Generativity Theory provided the foundation of our thematic qualitative analysis. We discuss the findings in terms of generative desire (motivational), beliefs (thoughts and plans), and actions (behaviors and applied meaning). Our quantitative and qualitative findings advance the conversation of the importance of maintaining social capital throughout one’s career and identifying generative connections that assist with difficult transitions, such as retirement, in later life.

Exploring the development of humble leaders in the context of agriculture

The complexity of the world today requires leadership that is interconnected rather than self-serving. This is particularly important within the context of agriculture, a field at the forefront of the complex problems associated with the impact of climate change. In recent years, the role virtues play in effective leadership has gained a significant amount of attention. One particular virtue that has seen increased attention in the leadership research is humility. Humility has been identified as a way to counteract the negative outcomes of self-serving leadership, namely, unethical practices and leader narcissism. Over the past several decades, researchers and scholars have begun to shed light on the many benefits this elusive virtue brings to leadership, however, many questions remain, notably, “How do humble leaders develop their leadership?” The present qualitative study found that humble agriculture leaders develop their leadership style through (a) the development of strong personal values, (b) investments in human and social capital, and (c) supportive feedback. The findings from this research provide recommendations for agricultural leadership educators to consider when building leadership programs that have the goal of developing humble leaders ready to address complex problems in the context of agriculture and natural resources.