Family Communication Patterns: Can They Impact Leadership Styles?

A plethora of studies has worked on family communication and leadership separately. Little research has combined these two components although they both relate to personality characteristics and communication styles. Therefore, this thesis investigated correlations between leadership styles and family communication patterns during childhood. Two hypotheses were proposed representing the relationship between conformity orientation and task leadership, and between conversation orientation and relation leadership. Faculty, non-academic staff, and students in leadership positions from Western Kentucky University were samples of this study. They completed a questionnaire voluntarily. Family communication pattern scale and Leadership Behavior Descriptive Questionnaire were used in the survey. Pearson Product-Moment correlation (one-tail) was used to examine the two hypotheses. The first hypothesis was significantly supported. The results indicated a positive relationship between conversation orientation and relation leadership. Moreover, data showed that most respondents came from conversation-oriented families and used relation leadership styles.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Communication

Year

2008

Author dc:creator

• Prasitthipab, Suthida

Contributors dc:contributor

• Dr. Blair Thompson (Director), Dr. Larry Caillouet, Dr. Cecile Garmon

• relation leadership
• family communication patterns
• conversation orientation
• Communication
• Organizational Communication

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/16

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.wku.edu:theses-1015