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Leadership Traits and Villages' Involvement In Community Development Projects in Dangkor District, Cambodia
Thesis Abstract:
This study examined the results of agency-motivated projects in Dangkor District, Cambodia particularly in terms of the role of village leaders and how leadership traits affected the involvement of the villages.
The agency used in the study was Redd Barna, a voluntary organization that extended financial and expert assistance to the villages. The study focused on three major projects, namely: rice, water, and cow projects. Specifically, the study aimed to examine the leadership qualities and the level of involvement of the villages in community development projects. It also examined the relationship between leadership traits (qualities and demographic characteristics) and the involvement level of the villages as perceived by the leaders themselves. The study used 27 village headmen or chairmen of Village Development Communities (VDCs) as samples. Structured questionnaires were the main instruments used for data collection, supported by informal interviews, personal observation, and secondary sources.
The overall profile of leaders could be summed up as democratically-oriented with moderate to high leadership behavior characteristics and high leadership situation characteristics. The majority of the leaders fell into the group with a high level of overall leadership qualities, while the rest had moderate level of overall leadership qualities. In general, the villages in the three selected projects had moderate level of involvement.
Among the non-focused projects, there was a high degree of willingness and involvement in the construction of the latrine project but it failed because the people abandoned the latrines. This implies the need to educate the people to affect attitudinal changes. Leadership qualities had some bearing on the leaders' own assessment of their respective villages' involvement in the projects. They indicated that generally, the involvement level was low and moderate in the various stages of the projects. However, the democratic leaders and those with high leadership situation were more favorable in assessing their villages' level of involvement.
The leaders with high overall leadership qualities perceived the villages' involvement level to be mainly moderate, indicating that leaders, who themselves were categorically of high leadership quality, did not necessarily place their villages at the top level in terms of involvement.
This, in turn, seemed to suggest that generally, very good leaders expected a higher standard of performance in their villages but most of them thought their villages was only moderately involved.
Results of the study showed that the Redd Barna projects had attained a measurable success while the village leaders proved to have the potential to facilitate the development program of the villages with their overall favorable leadership traits. To enhance the success of the projects, the study recommended the following:
I) Determining what projects should be implemented in any village should be based on a comprehensive study of many aspects, including people's needs, environmental suitability, and organizational capability.
2) To ensure a successful people-involvement in the projects, there is a need to accelerate the existing non-formal education program, particularly in the form of continuous extension work.
3) A coordinating committee should be formed in each district to bring together government agency officials, the Redd Barna personnel, and the village leaders. This committee should serve as a conduit between the people and the project sponsors.