How Today’s Undergraduate Students See Themselves as Tomorrow’s Socially Responsible Leaders

A new generation of leaders is needed not only to build local partnerships in today’s communities, but to assume all positions of leadership. Undergraduate students within a College of Agricultural Sciences at a large land grant university were given the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SLRS) to determine their self-perception of leadership according to the eight SLRS constructs: consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, collaboration, common purpose, controversy with civility, citizenship and courage through change. Results indicated a strong alignment with constructs such as congruence, consciousness of self and commitment, with slightly less agreement in the other constructs. Two important issues were illustrated. First, today’s undergraduates appear to be much more comfortable with diversity and conflict than once was the norm. Secondly, the citizenship construct brought to light a lack of awareness and desire to contribute to their civic responsibility. Implications include changes in leadership curriculum and implementation of service learning experiences.