How Can We Prepare the Coming Generation for Change Making? A Qualitative Study Exploring Strategies for Fostering Transformational Leadership Development Among Youth and Young Professionals

Abstract

Transformational leadership has long been a popular research domain in the field of leadership, particularly among organizational leadership and management scholars. However, despite its prominence in research, few studies have explored this domain with regard to the youth population. Meanwhile, the proliferation of wicked problems around the world has necessitated the involvement of youth in transformational leadership activities. Therefore, this study explores strategies for fostering transformational leadership development among youth and young professionals. For over 100 years, 4-H Extension services have been heavily involved in organizing and strategizing youth development programs, making them the largest youth development organization in the United States. This study adopts a qualitative research method to explore the lived experiences of 4-H Extension agents (n=15) with respect to transformational leadership development among youth. The data collected from this study were coded and analyzed using a line-by-line analytical approach to provide a more robust understanding of the data and to identify salient but implied notes from the data. Moreover, this study employs the path-goal theory of leadership as a theoretical framework to understand the definitions of transformational leadership, the approaches 4-H has used to develop young transformational leaders, barriers to transformational leadership, and potential strategies for fostering transformational leadership development among youth. Notably, findings from this research revealed that the interviewed 4-H Extension agents perceived transformational leadership development among youth as creating opportunities for youth to thrive, challenging the status quo, motivating others to work toward a common goal, and becoming agents of change within the society. Secondly, the findings revealed that approaches deployed by 4-H to develop youth's transformational leadership include adult leaders playing role-modeling functions, youth influence each other, hands-on leadership opportunities, and adult leaders facilitating workshops on critical leadership skills. Thirdly, findings revealed that interviewed 4-H Extension agents perceive the barriers to transformational leadership development among youth to include, inadequate support system, conflicting demands of youth, and lack of sustainable programmatic approach. Lastly, findings revealed that interviewed 4-H Extension agents perceive potential strategies for fostering transformational leadership to include, developing the capacity of adult leaders in the area of transformational leadership, enabling the ability of youth to solve complex problems, building effective transformational leadership programs, and youth-adult partnerships. This study contributes to the body of knowledge in the domain of transformational leadership by offering a working definition of youth transformational leadership and laying the foundation for advancing the study of youth transformational leadership.