Engineering Leadership

Higher Education    Students

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TITLE Engineering Leadership
 
RESEARCHER William H. Baxter
College of Engineering
Texas A&M University
Master’s Thesis: May 2001

OBJECTIVE
This study examined the leadership practices of engineering students and non-engineering students to ascertain whether the former received adequate leadership education while in college.

METHODOLOGY
The sample consisted of students, ranging from academic juniors to fifth year seniors, who are current or former members of the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets. The officers surveyed were stationed at the college as Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) unit instructors. Of the 76 respondents, 17 were officers, 37 of the students were engineering majors and 22 were non-engineering majors. Respondents completed the Student version of the Leadership Practices Inventory (Self).

KEY FINDINGS
LPI scores from officers were consistently and significantly higher than the students on all five leadership practices. This finding was true for separate comparisons between the officers with both engineering and non-engineering student majors. Generally the leadership scores of non-engineering students was greater than those of engineering students.