Leadership competence and political control: The influential factors

This study considers the impact of social support upon the psychological empowerment of community activists. Although it has been clearly shown that the human and personal resources that individual activists bring to their voluntary activity and the inputs of the agencies and associations in which they are active both contribute to the activists' empowerment, little research has considered the effect of the support given by family, friends, and significant others. One hundred twenty-two community activists in the lower socioeconomic neighborhoods of a city in the center of Israel filled in questionnaires at the conclusion of a year's training program. The questionnaires included craies of social support (family and friends), satisfaction with the course (practical and learning), leadership competence, policy control, self-esteem, and mastery. The variables were of importance in their contribution to leadership competence and policy control, but in different ways. Both forms of satisfaction from the course, self-esteem, and family support, contributed to leadership competence, while both mastery and self-esteem, and the support of friends contributed to policy control. The differences between leadership competence and policy control are discussed in the light of these findings.