Using Pre-Identified Attributes as the Critical Success Factors of College Leadership to Measure Candidates

Abstract

The selection of a school leader is a multi attribute problem that needs to be addressed taking into consideration
the peculiar needs of an institution. This paper is intended to specify the critical success factors (CSFs) of college
leaders as perceived by students. A survey comprising the 37 attributes of The Leaders Attributes Inventory (LAI)
of Moss was given to the students in a local university to determine their best 10. The 10 selected attributes were
mapped onto the Leadership Effectiveness Index (LEI) where they were grouped under the 3 categories of Social
Skills, Management Skills and Personal Characteristics. The top three attributes identified were “Visionary,
Planning and Achievement oriented”. The research seeks to contribute to the understanding of the critical
success factors of college leadership. Another objective of the study is to create a model to measure candidates
using the attributes so identified.