Abstract

This project’s primary purpose was to identify and describe the leadership styles and skills emphases of current Kansas agricultural organization chief executive officers. Twenty-three current CEOs participated and were described in terms of their leadership styles, leadership-skills emphases, and demographics. Overall, they appeared to be rather “middle of the road” on each of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire’s nine leadership scales. Leadership styles were not significantly affected by demographics, with the exception of formal leadership training affecting transactional leadership and education level, organizational category, and staff size affecting passive-avoidant leadership. Participants generally rated the 50 leadership skills as important. Leadership styles did not significantly affect the skill emphases. In evaluating CEO candidates, an agricultural organization should design its process to gauge leadership styles and skills separately because, according to this project, they do not predict each other. Once a new CEO is hired, a formal leadership-training program should emphasize the transformational style over the transactional and, more so, passive-avoidant while still maintaining an appropriate balance between transformational and transactional.

Keywords: leadership styles, leadership skills, CEO demographics, Kansas agriculture, organizational management

How to Cite:

Parker, B. A., MBA, CAE, Ellis, J. D., Ph.D. & Rogers, D., Ph.D., (2017) “Leadership in Kansas Agriculture: Examining Organization CEOs’ Styles and Skills”, Online Journal of Rural Research & Policy 12(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/1936-0487.1081