A look at leadership, personality factors, gender and field of study, in university studentes

Abstract

Leadership is essential for the development of university students. The objective is to understand the relationship between leadership styles, personality factors, gender, and field of study among university students. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive quantitative study was conducted with 212 university students in Spain, including 58% (n=123) women and 42% (n=89) men, aged between 18 and 57 years (M=21.90, SD=5.084), from various fields of study. Instruments used: NEOFII Questionnaire (Spanish version of the NEO-PI-R) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ-5X), adapted to university students in Spanish. SPSSv26 was used for statistical analysis, including descriptive statistics and comparisons. Results: 1) Health sciences and social and legal sciences fields had the highest average in transformational leadership. 2) Women showed the highest average in transformational leadership, while men had the highest average in transactional leadership. 3) presonality traits.such as extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience were positively correlated with transformational leadership. 4) Neuroticism was positively correlated with transactional leadership. Conclusion: Personality traits are closely linked to leadership. Universities should promote leadership among students to improve communication skills, the learning process, academic performance, and teamwork.