Understanding the role of leadership motivation in college student leadership development

Current scholarship situates leadership capacity, leadership self-efficacy, and motivation as core factors in predicting leadership action (Chan & Drasgow, 2001; Dugan, 2017). With relationships between leadership capacity and self-efficacy clearly established in college student leadership development literature (Dugan & Komives, 2007, 2010), this research endeavors to better understand motivation’s role in the student leadership development process. Using Dugan (2017) and Chan and Drasgow’s (2001) theoretical models as guides, this research will examine several models that test various relationships between leadership capacity, self-efficacy, and motivation. Because scholars have emphasized the importance of disaggregating data based on social identities (Kodama & Dugan, 2013), I will also explore the nature of these various relationships across race, gender, and sexual orientation. In better comprehending the nature of motivation’s role in student leadership development, researchers and practitioners can understand to what degree leadership motivation influences the developmental process, potentially explore factors that bolster leadership motivation, and integrate environmental interventions that leverage motivation in the leadership development process.