| Supervisors in higher education have encountered significant changes in the 19th and 20th centuries. Educational leaders used to focus on selecting qualified subordinate employees and gaining institutional prominence; whereas, now the focus is on exercising effective leadership and tending to the needs of individuals who live and work in higher educational settings. Educational leaders have to become proactive and handle complex issues by engaging people effectively while also leading subordinate employees through change. Today, supervisors must gain a more thorough understanding of various styles of leadership, which are required to motivate all faculty, staff, and students. The problem this study addressed was a gap in leadership studies of supervisors in higher education institutions, centered on subordinate employee job satisfaction and leadership effectiveness as desired organizational outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of leadership styles adopted by supervisors in higher education and how the implementation of these leadership styles may affect subordinate employee job satisfaction, and how the use of these leadership styles may affect ratings of supervisor effectiveness. This study was conducted utilizing the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 360. This non-experimental, correlational, quantitative study found no statistical significance between the choice of leadership style and ratings of job satisfaction but did find statistical significance between transformational leadership and ratings of supervisor effectiveness. Participants consisted of supervisors and their subordinate employees from a rural private university in Pennsylvania. The results of this study could influence leadership training in higher education. Future studies could also examine more urban populations, non-private institutions, or trade and technical schools. |
