학술논문

Overseas expeditions : self-esteem and transformational leadership
Document Type
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Source
Subject
658.4
Language
English
Abstract
The thesis is written as four chapters detailing five studies through which the impact of overseas expeditions was investigated. Study 1 (Chapter 2) examined the effects of expeditions on the multidimensional self-esteem domains of youth participants. Results demonstrated significant and positive differences in post-test self-esteem domain scores for expedition participants compared with a control group. One of the multi-source data collections (i.e., the leader team) corroborated the significant effect for general self-esteem at post-test. However, only one significant maintenance effect was found for the self-esteem domain of honesty/trustworthiness at six months follow-up. In Study 2 (Chapter 3) an existing differentiated measure of transformational leadership was amended to provide a contextually relevant measure for use in the expedition setting, that is, the Expedition-DTLI (E-DTLI). The study was divided into three phases. Phase 1 explored the factorial validity of the new measure; following confirmatory factor analysis procedures and item deletion an acceptable model fit was provided, supporting a 7-factor structure. Phase 2 confirmed the factor structure, and phase 3 explored and confirmed the predictive validity of the E-DTLI. Taken together these results provide initial evidence that the E-DTLI is a valid measure for use in the expedition context. Using the E-DTLI, Study 3 (Chapter 4) examined the impact of transformational leadership (TL) on the multidimensional self-esteem domains of youth expedition participants. Regression analyses revealed that the hypothesised TL behaviours (intellectual stimulation, individual consideration) were significant predictors of certain self-esteem domains (e.g., general self-esteem, honesty/trustworthiness). Other predictive relationships that were not hypothesised were also evident (e.g., high performance expectations predicting general self-esteem). These results were used to inform Study 4 (Chapter 5) where a pilot TL training intervention was implemented. Results from the pilot indicated no significant difference in the experimental (intervention) group’s TL behaviours at post-test in comparison to the control group’s TL behaviours. However, the experimental group’s TL behaviours significantly increased pre to post test. Subsequent review of Study 4 led to amendments in content and design of the intervention, resulting in the development of a full-scale intervention (Study 5). Results for Study 5 (Chapter 5) demonstrated that the TL intervention had a significant and positive impact on experimental expedition leaders’ TL behaviours compared to the control group. When examining the self-esteem domains of the youth participants being led by the leaders, only the honesty/trustworthiness domain was significantly higher for the experimental leader group in comparison to the control group.

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