The North Carolina Community College System Critical Success Factor 1 and the Association with Leadership Styles Practiced by North Carolina Community College Presidents

This study examined the association between the North Carolina Community College System’s Critical Success Factors - Factor 1: Core Indicators of Student Success, and the practiced leadership styles of North Carolina community college presidents. The mixed-method research design involved a constructive epistemology. The first stage used quantitative research to gather and analyze data from the Leadership Competence Assessment Instrument and the North Carolina Community College System Annual Reports (2007 – 2009). The second stage used qualitative research to develop interview questions for selected presidents based on the results of the first stage. The third and final stage for this research was comprehensive and combined strategies, approaches, and methods from stages one and two.