What characteristics of the leaders of Rotary clubs are associated with organizational efficiency? In this study, the leader characteristics of the presidents of the twenty most successful American Rotary clubs will be compared to the leader characteristics of the presidents of the twenty least successful American Rotary clubs. Observed differences will be related to the effects of leaders on the efficiency of non-profit international organizations such as The Rotary.
Rotary International is an association of business and professional people founded by Paul Harris in 1905. Now an international organization, The Rotary Club has 1,125,000 members in 172 different countries.
Rotary functions as both a fellowship and a service organization, helping to sponsor community and international service projects. Further, it funds international student and professional exchange programs and universities. An example of the kind of work done by The Rotary International is given by Picon and associates (1985) who reported that in order to celebrate its 75th Anniversary in 1980, Rotary International established the Health, Hunger, and Humanity (3-H) Program to "improve health, alleviate hunger, and enhance human and social development of all peoples as a means of advancing international understanding, goodwill, and world peace".
Adult literacy was stated as a program priority of the 3-H effort. Club members were accordingly provided with background information on the nature of the literacy problems in various parts of the world, as part of the effort to inspire and motivate them to undertake literacy projects of their own.
Other examples of Rotary Club projects include the Rotary Youth Exchange program which allows youths the opportunity to camp and visit other countries (see: Pregler, 1992) and support of the World Health Organization's effort to provide polio immunization to both developed and underdeveloped countries (Smith, 1988...