Faculty perceptions of occupational therapy program director's leadership styles and outcomes of leadership

Despite the abundance of research examining the relationship between leadership styles and leader effectiveness, a paucity of peer-reviewed research exists that formally investigates leadership effectiveness of academic occupational therapy program directors. The purpose of this research study based on the Full Range Leadership Theory (FRLT) was to investigate the relationship between faculty perceptions of occupational therapy program director's full-range of leadership styles, outcomes of leadership, and the moderating effects of demographic variables and academic institution characteristics. Data for this study was collected utilizing the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) Form 5X, and the self designed Demographic and Institution Questionnaire (DIQ). The study sample included graduate occupational therapy faculty from all 150 accredited professional occupational therapy programs in the United States for the 2005-2006 academic year. The survey instruments were sent out to 500 randomly selected occupational therapy faculty members. The actual data-generating workable sample was n=184 (37%), out of ninety-eight (65%) accredited academic occupational therapy programs.; Major findings from the study indicate, that in general, transformational and transactional leadership styles are predictive of leadership outcomes. Transformational leadership had a significant (p<.001) positive predictive relationship with the leadership outcomes whereas transactional leadership had a significant (p<.001) negative predictive relationship with the leadership outcomes. Demographic characteristics of faculty did not have a significant (p>.01) influence on perceived transactional leadership styles and leadership outcomes. Demographic characteristics of faculty did not have a significant influence (p>.01)on perceived transformational leadership styles and leadership outcomes with the exception of faculty rank influencing perceptions of extra effort and faculty appointment influencing perceptions of transformational leadership, effectiveness, and satisfaction with the leadership. Institution characteristics did not have a significant influence (p>.01) on perceived leadership styles and leadership outcomes.; Previous research supports the findings from this study, which identified the need for academic occupational therapy program directors to employ a full-range of leadership, including transformational and transactional contingent reward styles, in order to achieve a maximum impact on faculty perceptions of effectiveness, extra effort and satisfaction (Antonakis & House, 2002; Avolio & Bass, 2004; Dumdum Lowe, & Avolio, 2002). The results of this research demonstrate that transformational leadership styles have a positive predictive relationship with leadership outcomes. Transactional leadership styles have a negative predictive relationship with leadership outcomes, except for transactional contingent reward, which has a positive predictive relationship with leadership outcomes similar to the transformational leadership constructs. Therefore, the most effective leaders perform a full range of leadership styles that combine both the transformational constructs and the transactional construct contingent reward approaches to leadership . In other words, program directors should display transformational leadership most often, augmented by contingent reward leadership. In conclusion, occupational therapy program directors need to incorporate a full range of leadership styles as they lead faculty and become mindful of the individual leadership needs of their faculty in order to achieve desired outcomes.