AbstractsRecreation

This dissertation explores the impact of formal staff training and field leadership on the ability of student leaders to correctly discern the appropriate styles of leadership for specific outdoor recreation-based situations. The relationship between the situational leadership model (Hersey & Blanchard, 1980) and group development theory (Tuckman, 1965) was explored through the integration research of Weber and Karman (1991) and was used as a framework for this study. In order to develop an applicable form of this research for this study, the researcher developed an integrated dynamic model to provide a visual representation of the blending of the two theoretical frameworks. In addition to the exploration of formal staff training and field leadership experiences, analyses were conducted to determine if age, gender, race, previousoutdoor recreation experience, or outdoor recreation degree seeking significantly affected the students’ awareness or their dominant styles of leadership. The literature study indicated a strong relationship between situational leadership and outdoor recreation (Breunig, O'Connell, Todd, Anderson, & Young, 2010; Shooter, Paisley, & Sibthorp, 2009; Sibthorp, Paisley, & Gookin, 2007; Sutherland & Stroot, 2010), but little, if any, research exists on the development of situational leadership in outdoor leaders. The quantitative nature of this study stemmed from the lack of research in the outdoor recreation field from this approach. As most previous research in outdoor recreation utilized small populations (i.e., a single group of people participating in an outdoor recreation activity), this study examined a larger group of participants utilizing a quantitative approach. In total, 106 student outdoor leaders from various Midwestern United States university outdoor recreation programs participated in a three-part study that tested their awareness of situational leadership through the Outdoor Leadership Survey (OLS), which utilized the Expedition Leader Style Analysis (ELSA; Phipps & Phipps, 2003). The survey was administered prior to the formal staff training, at the conclusion of the staff training, and after a minimum of 7 days of field leadership experience. The results were paired and analyzed for significance. T tests of related samples indicated no significant difference in situational leadership awareness scores (SLAS) and the formal staff training or field leadership experience. Though no significant results were found in the study it was noted that the calculations were unable to control for various presentation styles of leadership development information. The varying structure of the formal staff training and field leadership experiences coupled with the low statistical power due to limited data points could have caused non-significant results. In terms of demographic differences, chi-square tests were conducted to examine relationships between dominant leadership styles and the reported variables. Reported p values were > .05 for all tests, with the exception of the change in…