The New Social Leader: Analyzing the Effects of Extraversion, Gender, Honors College, Class Standing, School, and GPA on the Diversity of Leadership

Research on leaders indicates that strong leadership depends on certain behavioral factors as well as an established sense of trust and cooperation between leaders and the individuals they lead. In order to understand what has the greatest influence on an individual’s leadership abilities, this study was conducted to uncover what factors play the largest role in how an individual leads others and how they view others as leaders; the factors examined were extraversion, gender, honors college, class standing, and GPA. Along with this, the study was designed to determine the impact of ambiversion on leadership as well as the aforementioned factors. According to research, ambiverts are more dynamic and their behavior depends upon the situation at hand. In this study, a survey was conducted to gather information on students, assess their level of extraversion, and obtain their experiences both as leaders and when other individuals were leading them. Based on personality, extraverts felt more confident and effective in their leadership abilities, introverts were more authoritative in their approach to leadership and took charge of the group, and ambiverts did not feel confident or effective as leaders. Overall, women were more confident in their leadership abilities and felt they were more effective leaders. Women also are considered more team style leaders that encourage group members to participate and view success as a group effort. Men are more authoritative in their leadership style and believe the group should follow their rules. Along with this, women rated themselves as introverts less than men. Along other dimensions, W.P. Carey students are less about the people in their leadership style than other majors, and Barrett students are more focused on the task side of leadership than non-Barrett individuals. Additionally, students in the top GPA bracket are more team style leaders while students in the highest class standing are less team style with their leadership approach.