A comparison of the findings of different methods for identifying community leaders

Findings are presented from an in‐depth analysis of four communities in which reputation, decision, and position measures of leadership were used. A high degree of overlap among findings is observed in the four communities. A comparison with the larger body of literature leads to the conclusion that, in general, the degree of overlap of multiple measures of leadership will vary according to characteristics of the research site being studied. Future researchers should focus more clearly on distinguishing between research sites that can be characterized as satellite communities and those which are relatively independent entities, a distinction which has been somewhat unclear in past research. In addition, it is suggested that the number of issues selected for analysis may affect the results. Implications are drawn for the community practitioner who may need background data on leadership before implementing a community project.