Exploring the Relationship between Undergraduate Student Employees’ Workplace Experiences and Leadership Capacity

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Collection number: aq-2026-030

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Welaish, Andrew G.. "Exploring the Relationship between Undergraduate Student Employees’ Workplace Experiences and Leadership Capacity, Ed.D., Valdosta State University, 2026." Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10428/7744 This study investigated the relationship between undergraduate student employee workplaceexperiences and the development of socially responsible leadership capacity using a quantitative, cross-sectional design. Grounded in the Social Change Model of Leadership, a sample of 81 student employees were surveyed at three public universities to examine how the frequency of 19 distinct workplace experiences influenced scores on the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS-R2). Data analysis involved a sequential approach, using bootstrapped regressions and Kruskal-Wallis H tests to explore relationships between experience frequency and leadership outcomes. The findings identified a standardized workplace environment within this specific sample, as variables such as collaboration, problem-solving, and task repetition were omitted from the final analysis due to a lack of variance among respondents. While informal supervisor interactions and feedback were associated with higher scores in Commitment, Congruence, and Change, and idea experimentation emerged as a factor for Consciousness of Self and Controversy with Civility, the small sample size limits the generalizability and interpretability of these results beyond the research sites. These findings offer localized evidence that intentional supervision and opportunities for innovation may serve as potential drivers of student employees’ leadership development, though further research with larger populations is necessary to confirm these relationships.