The Role of Parental Influence in Leadership

Abstract

Abstract This study examined how parental influence may shape the leadership process. American college students majoring in management used the Leadership Behavior Description Questionnaire to describe their management style. They next used the same instrument to describe their perceptions of the management style used by a person they nominated as an important early influence in the development of their own leadership style. Finally, the person they nominated completed the instrument. Correlations among the scales were used to examine how the early influence affected the subscale scores of the students. Results suggest that early influence was important and that some gender-related differences were operating. It appears that early influence operated most strongly through perceptions, that individuals modeled (rather than reacted against) the perceived style, and that the process operated most strongly for male students and for those whose early influence was male.