Development Programs

Introduction3

Literature Review3

Development Courses5

CSU Servant Leadership Program7

Empirical Research8

Conclusions11

Development Programs

Introduction

Student development is concerned with the transformation and growth of a student as they are progressed through various courses during their academic career. During this time, the students are introduced to programs that polish their leadership and development capabilities, to equip them with the skills and expertise to lead the organizations of the future. This research paper conducts a literature review of the studies that are concerned with the effectiveness of development programs designed for college students.

Literature Review

A large number of colleges are taking the initiative to introduce leadership and development programs in order to cater the increase in awareness regarding their impact on the future of the students. Development programs, particularly those focusing on developing the leadership skills of the students create a strong sense of commitment to team work in order to achieve a common goal (Al-Alawneh et.al. 2011, p48-57). The higher education system symbolizes the faith that people have in the colleges to not only teach the students skills and knowledge required to excel in their professional area. But it also expresses the faith in the faculty, syllabus and experience to prepare these students to become leaders that radically improve the condition for the future generations. The college experience should be planned in such a manner that leadership is predominantly present in each and every subject. It should not be isolated as an activity that is performed or exhibited by the elite class of the student (Reyes 1997, p36). It is an art that can be learned through proper training and that is what development programs should aim to achieve. Leadership is something that everyone in the society should practice, no matter what their class, color or career. And to achieve this objective, it should be hard-wired into the brains of the student's right from the start of their college education.

The environment over the last decade has changed drastically, largely due to large scale penetration of information technology. It has resulted in increasing awareness of the people far more that people could gather in their lifetime. This change in requirements can be met with optimizing our college infrastructure to deliver in accordance with the changes in leadership requirements. There are various different types of goals that a leader aims to achieve through the skills and experience that they might have gathered over the course of time. These goals might differ in their tenure or purpose, for example, there are short term and long term goals. Development programs aim to equip the students with the skills and expertise to meet the requirements of the goal at individual as well as guiding team members to meet their goals (Wang 2009 ,p108-124). Collaboration is an important skill that needs to be the focus of the learning outcomes of these development programs. This is because of the fact that no one has the time and skills required to excel at everything and they should make use of all the help they can ...