University executive team's collective leadership and its impact on student retention on Catholic campuses

Abstract

Although individual leadership behaviors, particularly those of a college president have been studied extensively, the possibility of leading at the group level, particularly the relationship of leadership behaviors of the college executive team and its effect on student retention, remains unclear. Based on 68 college executive leader responses, representing 41 Catholic colleges and universities, the statistical analysis in this research consistently showed similar results between responses despite placement in a high or low retention group. Moreover, the current study showed the team leadership behaviors of the executive teams at both high-retention and low-retention colleges could not predict respondents' placement in a college with high or low student retention. In addition, collective intelligence was identified as a mediator across all variables related to team performance. Further, contingent reward, together with the mediator collective intelligence, accounted for 73% of the variation in a team's perception of their group effectiveness.