Proactive Personality and Perceived Social Support as Predictors of Leadership Style among Undergraduates

Abstract

This study examined whether proactive personality and perceived social support will predict leadership style. One hundred and eighty (180) undergraduates from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka participated in the study. They include 112 females and 62 males whose ages ranged from 18-42 years with a mean age of 22.77 years and standard deviation of 3.61. Mixed sampling design involving purposive samplings and accidental samplings were used to select the participants. Three instruments (BCE leadership style scale, shortened version of proactive personality scale and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support) were used in the study. The study adopted correlational predictive design and hierarchical multiple regression statistics was used to analyze the data. The result shows that the model for each of the hierarchy were significant, R² =(.04 and .08)  and F value for this two hierarchy are (9.05*, and 4.57**) respectively.  The β value for the second model shows that only (family support) is significant while friends support and significant others support were not significant, β = (.207, .117, and .034) respectively. The discussion focused on important and implication of these two significant predictors. Recommendations were based on the findings. It was recommended that input from proactive personality and family support are important variables that can induce leadership style.