Introduction
Alma College has committed to equipping each and every student with the knowledge, skills and commitment to be responsible leaders in their communities and workplaces through a holistic range of experiences coordinated by the Center for Responsible Leadership.
As a part of this initiative, the College engaged EPIC-MRA, a public opinion polling and marketing firm headquartered in Lansing, Mich., to survey contemporary American businessmen and women and the College’s alumni about what they believe about leadership. They were asked: Who are the country’s leaders? How strong is the leadership in various aspects of modern life? What characteristics do superior leaders have?
Survey Results (PDF, 73 Kb)
Study Design
Summary of Key Findings
National political figures dominate the list of the country’s superior leaders, with President George W. Bush the most frequently mentioned. Also among those mentioned most often is “my dad” — but not “my mom.”
The perceived quality of leadership is highest in the domains of science and technology, the military, and volunteer and community service. It is lowest in the domains of politics, health care and K-12 education. Perceptions about the quality of leadership in the different domains vary somewhat by region, but the variation is unique to the domain.
Integrity and honesty appear to be the salient attributes of leaders, with intelligence and vision also playing a role.
Five different segments of people can be identified based on their preferred leadership styles. Somewhat more than one-third (36%) value a visionary people-person. About one-fourth (24%) value a physically attractive visionary. About one-fifth value a clear thinker. About one-fifth (19%) value a can-do team player. A very small group (1%) value a physically attractive charismatic.
The study was conducted through telephone interviews with 1,000 randomly selected American business owners, officers, operators or managers and 200 Alma College alumni, from February 3, 2007 to March 13, 2007. The sample of Alma College alumni was randomly selected from a list of alumni with addresses predominantly in southeast Michigan.
The sampling error associated with the subsample of businessmen and women is +/- 3 percent, to the nearest whole percent. The sampling error associated with the subsample of Alma College alumni is +/- 7 percent, to the nearest whole percent. In theory, this implies that in 19 cases out of 20, the results from the subsample of businessmen and women will differ by no more than three percentage points in either direction from what would have been obtained by seeking out all American business men and women, and the results from the alumni subsample will differ by no more than seven percentage points from those that would have been obtained by seeking out all Alma College alumni. For smaller subgroups the margin of sampling error is larger. In addition to sampling error, the practical difficulties of conducting any survey of public opinion may introduce other sources of error into the poll. Variation in the wording and order of questions, for example, may lead to somewhat different results.
As a rule of thumb, when comparing results from the businessmen and women with those from the Alma College alumni, differences of seven percentage points or less between the two groups would not ordinarily be regarded as statistically significant.
