The purpose of this North Carolina study was to examine selected leadership correlates of variation in Cooperative Extension Chairmen's (CEC) conformity to an administrative professional leadership (APL) concept of their role. Two research instruments were developed--Survey I, used for collecting data from agents (419) and Survey II, for data from chairmen (79). The basic data reduction technique used was the principal components method of factor analysis. The findings suggested that the social and working relationships between chairmen and agents were an important source of variation in APL. The chairmen scoring highest in administrative leadership were also those who gave agents a high degree of managerial support. Neither possession of undergraduate majors nor the number of courses taken in administration and education was significantly related to APL. Of the formal educational experiences of chairmen examined, courses in sociology were the only ones significantly related to APL. (Author/NL)