Generational Cohort and Style of Leadership: A Study Among Adult Learners at UUMKL

What would be the leadership style to lead a diverse generational cohort in an organization? Is it a transformational leadership style, transactional leadership style or probably just a laissez-faire leadership style? What we can see in an organization nowadays are the workforces that are being shaped up by three diverse generational cohorts of Baby Boomers, Gen-X and Gen-Y. This study is conducted in the purpose to explore the perception of leadership style of a practitioner in the field of human resource, management and administration by taking the sample of diverse generational cohort of adult learners. The selection on this sample of adult learners in the above particular field is because they are the future leader to their organization which helps in the development of employees’ professional management talent. They are also the personnel that involve in the organizational policy making and govern the industrial relations harmony among
diverse employees in the organization. In this study the leadership styles were examined using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass & Avolio, 2000). Results showed that transformational leadership had a higher Cronbach’s alpha coefficient mean compare with the other two style of leadership of transactional leadership and laissez-faire style of leadership. Differences were found in these three generational cohorts with regards to their preferences of the style of leadership. Further discussion on their leadership approach in managing and leading the employees are explained in the findings.