Site Coordinators of Clinical Education: Self-Reported Leadership Styles for Achieving Leadership Outcomes

Leadership style is crucial for developing organizational culture, achieving goals, and shaping relationships. The site coordinator of clinical education (SCCE) is an important leader for effective physical therapy clinical education, yet few studies examine the role. This study's purposes were to discern the SCCEs' self-rated leadership styles, utilization patterns, and relationship of leadership effectiveness based on three leadership outcomes. Fifty-eight SCCEs recruited from an APTA listserv answered the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire Form-5X (MLQTM-5X) that measures transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire behaviors and outcomes. All SCCEs rated their leadership as primarily transformational. Positive relationships (p <0.05) occurred between transformational leadership (TFL) style and leadership outcomes. ANOVAs indicated utilizing TFL behaviors significantly affected all three leadership outcomes: extra effort (p = 0.01), effectiveness (p <0.001), and satis¬faction (p <0.001). Corrected post hoc Bonferroni analyses indicated SCCEs who most frequently utilized TFL behaviors achieved best outcomes (p <0.001). SCCEs utilized all TFL behaviors as well as one transactional behavior, contingent reward. The TFL style positively correlated with all three outcomes, showing better outcomes with greater utilization of TFL behaviors. These findings elucidate leadership styles of experienced, successful SCCEs and may serve as a pathway for SCCE leadership development.