Author : Ma Norith

Summary : This study examined the results of agency-motivated projects in Dangkor, District, Cambodia, particularly in terms of the role of village leaders and how leadership traits affected the involvement of the villages. The agency used in the study was Redd Barna, a voluntary organization that extended financial and expert assistance to the villages. The study focused three major projects, namely: rice, water, and cow projects. Specifically, the study aimed to examine the leadership qualities and the level of involvement of the villages in community development projects. It also examined the relationship between leadership traits (qualities and demographic characteristics) and the involvement level of the villages, as perceived by the leaders themselves. The study used 27 village headmen or chairmen of Village Development Communities (VDCs) as samples. Structured questionnaires were the main instruments used for data collection, supported by informal interviews, personal observation, and secondary sources. The overall profile of leaders could be summed up as democratically-oriented with moderate to high leadership behaviour characteristics and high leadership situation characteristics. Majority of the leaders fell into the group with a high level of overall leadership qualities, while the rest had moderate level of overall leadership qualities. In general, the villages in the three selected projects had moderate level of involvement. Among the non-focused projects, there was a high degree of willingness and involvement in the construction of the latrine project but it failed because the people abandoned the latrines. This implies the need to educate the people to affect attitudinal changes. Leadership qualities had some bearing on the leaders' own assessment of their respective villages' involvement in the projects. They indicated that generally, the involvement level was low and moderate in the various stages of the projects. However, the democratic leaders and those with high leadership situation, were..