**3.3 Instrumentation and validation**

The preferred leadership style questionnaire (PLSQ ) used in this study comprised nine items that examined three leadership styles preferred by students. Anchors in the instruments were: 1 = Strongly Agree, 2 = Agree, 3 = Strongly Disagree, 4 = Disagree. Items (2, 5, & 8) measured preference for democratic leadership, items (1, 4, & 7) measured preference for autocratic leadership and items (3, 6, & 9) measured preference for laissez-faire leadership style. A principal components exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation showed Kaiser-Meyer measure of sampling adequacy of 0.71 and also showed that at Eigen-value of 1, there were two constructs explaining 47% of the variances between the items in the PLSQ with the first six items loading together in the first component and the last three in the second. The items on the PLSQ had a Cronbach's alpha α=0.694.
