The effects of an introductory leadership course on socially responsible leadership, examined by age and gender

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of age and gender on student leadership capacity during a 16-week, for-credit academic leadership course at a regional mid-western university. The course promoted the tenets of the Social Change Model of Leadership (SCM) through theoretical and application-based projects. Participants completed the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS) as a pre/post test. The findings suggest age does not mediate students’ capacities for socially responsible leadership, but gender does for the SCM domains of collaboration and citizenship.