Organizational leaders use leadership development programs to develop leaders and remain competitive in a global economy. U.S. companies spend increasingly more on learning and development programs as organizational leaders realize the immediate need to develop and evaluate leaders internally (American Society of Training and Development, 2012). Effective leadership is important to Choctaw Nation because tribal leaders must satisfy traditional business objectives, manage tribal interests and policies, and increase economic growth in the community to promote sovereignty (Champagne, 2004; Cramblit, 2002; National Indian Gaming Commission, 2013). Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma developed Choctaw U to develop leaders within the employee population internally, but leaders at Choctaw Nation do not know if participation in the Choctaw U leadership development program impacts participants’ leadership behavior. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental study was to examine the impact of participation in an eight-week leadership development program on participants’ transformational leadership behavior. The research was conducted using electronic assessments, and the participants were selected from the 2015 Choctaw U class using convenience sampling. The participants completed the electronic Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, pretest and posttest, to provide quantitative data on transformational leadership behavior. A MANOVA design was used to analyze the data and determine if a statistically significant relationship exists between participation in an eight-week transformational leadership development program and participants’ transformational leadership behavior.

The results of this study suggest that participation in an eight-week leadership development program does not significantly impact participants transformational leadership behavior. Further inquiry and research may validate these findings.