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Stillman School of Business

Stillman School of Business Launches the 2023 (Third Edition) of the 'Future of Leadership Survey'  

A photo of Seton Hall's campus.The Stillman School's Department of Management research team has launched the 2023 edition of its annual, IRB-approved "The Future of Leadership Survey: Insight and Foresight About the Future of Leadership from the Leaders of the Future." 

The research team is proud to be going global with the 2023 Survey. In addition to Seton Hall University students and alumni, the survey is being distributed to the target segment across North America including the US Army, Latin America, the EU, China, Japan, Singapore, and Africa. Participating in this survey edition will make you a part of the global influencers of leadership development.

"We launched the survey with global ambitions in 2021. We are excited that the vision has come to fruition with the 3rd edition of the survey. This has been made possible by Alex McAuley who was a member of the research team while he pursued his MBA at Seton Hall. He shared the survey with his employer – Atheneum. Atheneum reached out to partner with us as they see the survey to participate in groundbreaking research and build a relationship with Seton Hall to recruit our students. They are helping us distribute the survey globally. Our sincere gratitude to Alex McAuley, Steven Scott, and Awais Majeed for their partnership," says Ruchin Kansal, M.B.A., the study’s primary investigator.

The research team, composed of Professors Ruchin Kansal, M.B.A. and Karen Boroff, Ph.D., and M.S. Candidate Bianca Johnson, is requesting help in sharing the survey link within networks beyond Seton Hall. The online survey targets respondents ages 18 to 30 to:

  • Better understand the expectations of future leaders -- college students and recent graduates --regarding the leaders, they seek to work with or want to become; and
  • Develop insight and foresight on values, competencies, and preferred models of leadership development for the future.

The groundbreaking results from the 2021 Survey revealed several notable shifts in the future of leadership from broadly perceived norms: a shift toward acceptance of diversity in the ranks of future leaders; that perception of the most influential leaders in their formative years — someone at home or at school — does not appear to be predictive of their perception of the persona of a mid-level leader in the workplace; and an increased desire for engagement from employers — whether it is in dealing more effectively with crisis and failure, in preventing worker alienation, or in managing work-life balance.

The 2022 survey findings built upon the results of the 2021 Survey and added new insights. We added a new question in the 2022 survey to understand if Gen Z has experienced a lack of leadership development at work because of remote work. Unfortunately, the answer is "yes," with 76 percent of the respondents saying so. The research also indicates that if firms manage to keep remote work to less than 50 percent, there is a slight positive uptick in certain leadership growth dimensions. However, if employees experience more than 50 percent of their work remotely, a negative impact on leadership development is observed. The results also affirmed that future leaders are looking for ethical and adaptive leaders who can inspire and lead organizations through change as the business environment becomes even more volatile and uncertain. They are open to a diverse set of leaders, but still expect them to be well-attired, healthy, and with well-groomed hair, as indicated by their preferences in response to the question on physical traits. Gender, race, and ethnicity-related physical characteristics do not rank as high for this generation. The findings from the survey allowed the team to contribute to the national discussion on the CROWN Act of 2022 (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act of 2022) and the Future of Work.

We encourage you to take the survey and influence the future of leadership development. Please also share the link broadly with your network here: Future of Leadership Survey Link. The survey is open till March 15th, 2023.

Categories: Business, Nation and World, Research