PT10603 PERSONALITY AND

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

LEADERSHIP
 Introduction

Who will make the best leader??

It difficult to predict.
Psychology has provided
valuable information to explain
why certain individuals are
better candidates to lead others
and therefore more likely to
become successful than others.
 There are two aspects as the
key elements of leadership:
Excellence & outstanding
achievement
The capacity to influence
others
Most psychologists have
regarded leadership as a
process rather than as a
static attribute/trait
 Horgan et.al (1994) leadership
involves persuading other people
to set aside for a period of time
their individual concerns and to
pursue a common goal that is
important for the responsibilities
and welfare group.
Psychological theories of generally
aimed at answering 3 questions ;
Who will lead? (Leadership emergence)
Who should lead (Leadership
effectiveness)
Are leaders born or made? (Characteristics
of leader)
Approaches to Leadership
Trait approach assume that
there are distinctive
psychological characteristics
accounting for leadership
emergence and effectiveness.
Situational leadership/
Contingency model assume
that leadership is determined
more by situational factors than
by personal characteristics.
 Freuds group psychology

Inspired by Gustav Le Bon

(1841-1931), French
Sociologist.
Quoted in Freuds (1921) book
Group Psychology and the
Analysis of the Ego.
In group situations, individuals
are highly suggestible and
easily influenced by others
 (Goethals,2005) - State of mind
would involve a regression to lower
intellectual level where individuals
are easily swayed by the words and
actions of leaders toward a dramatic
action and rapidly changing emotions
Leadership emerges as the natural
consequence of a groups thirst for
obedience and willingness to submit
itself instinctively to anyone who
appoints himself its master
(instinctual passion for authority)
 Freud (1921/1957) leaders
must be strong, well-
spoken, bright and possess
the typical qualities of the
group.
Identification an
individuals unconscious
desire to be like someone
else, involving an idealized
perception of a role model.
 Trait approaches : The
Great Man Theory
Trait approach examine the
psychological characteristics
and personal attributes of
leaders in an attempt to
identify common traits and
predict leadership potential
3 questions guided research
efforts of trait theorist are;
Which are the common traits
underlying all great leaders?
 Can we predict peoples
leadership potential on the basis
of these appropriate traits?
Can people learn to become
effective leaders?
The great Man Theory
Thomas Carlyle leaders
possess certain a personal
characteristics that are unique
and absent in most individuals.
 Assumption : a limited set of
individual traits used to
distinguish between leaders
and non-leaders and
persuaded researchers into
identifying these traits.
1970s there was a growing
consensus that effective
leaders had a higher need for
power, higher activity
inhibition and lower need for
affiliation
Leadership as a perceived
construct
Late 1970s-1980s focused on
perceived attributes of leaders
Theoretically : attempts to identify
followers perceptions on leaders
were inspired by the idea that
leadership is largely determined by
followers choice
Personal attributes (e.g charisma),
considered to be invested by
followers and accorded or
withdrawn by them
 Hollander, 2 main factors
determining whether a group
will legitimize a leader as such
are perceived trustworthiness
and task competence.
Implicit theories of leadership
leaders are generally caring,
outgoing, honest, competent,
repetition, verbally skilled,
decisive, educated, dedicated,
aggressive and elegant.
 Kenny et. al (1994) 4
higher-order factors
underlying peoples
conceptions of leaders are
the ability to learn groups
goal, taking charge, being a
nice person , and
emotionally stable.
Trait approach : survival
and revival
Lock (1997) identified various
leadership traits ( reality focus,
honesty etc.)
3 reason for trait approach
reemergence ;
Individual differences in
personality are best described and
predicted in terms of Big five
model, including leadership
psychologists.
 Advances in measurement
have helped to describe and
understand some of the
psychological mechanisms
underlying differences in
behavior.
Meta-analytical studies have
demonstrated the predictive
power of personality traits in
applied settings academic &
job performance
 Furnham (1994) leaders are
likely to be open, conscientious,
stable, agreeable and extraverts.
Silverstone (2001) effective
leaders tended to score
significantly higher on
Extraversion, Agreeableness,
and Conscientiousness, and
lower on Neuroticism ( US and
Chinese samples)
 Judge et.al (2002), quantitative
meta-analysis Emotional
Stability, extraversion, Openness
and conscientiousness were
positively correlated with both
leadership emergence
(perceived leadership) and
effectiveness (leadership
performance).
Extraversion most consistence
predictor.
 Criticism of the Trait
Approach
Big Five fails to provide causal
explanations for individual
differences in thought,
emotionally and behavior.
Big five does not provide a
theoretical explanation of
individuals motivation to
become leader, and how
individual differences may
operate in this respect.
 There remains the debate as
to the comprehensiveness
of the Big Five in fully
describing behavior at work.
The Big Five Model does not
explain the mechanisms by
which traits interact with
situational factors to
produce leader behavior and
outcomes.
Behavioral Approaches :
Leadership Styles
Attempt to conceptualized different
leadership style as well as their
effects on subordinates.
Leadership style a stable pattern
of behaviors adopted by leaders
that determines their relationship
with and influence over group
members.
Leaders differed on the basis of
how considerate they were of their
subordinates feelings and needs.
 1950s- another distinction introduced :
task oriented and interpersonally
oriented leadership styles.
Task oriented the leaders concern
with the completion of relevant task in
order to accomplish goals.
Interpersonally oriented the leaders
concern with maintaining good
relationships with and between the
groups.
1970s emphasize the effect of
leaders on subordinates leaders
effectiveness to inspire and empower
their followers.
 Charismatic leadership
Leadership style that is
visionary, motivational,
innovative, and capable of
inspiring, optimism in others
and also characterized superior
communication skills .
Able and likely to empower their
followers raise followers
feelings of self-efficacy,
motivation and self confident.
 Charismatic leaders ensure
and strengthen subordinates
level of social identification.
Social identification the
process by which individuals
identify with the group or
organization, happy to
replace their own personal
goals with those of the
group.
 Transformational
leadership
A type of charismatic leadership style
based on communicating and sharing
the leaders vision in order to produce a
change in followers values,
expectations, and motivations and
inspire them to sacrifice personal
interest for those of the group.
Followers tend to identify strongly with
and are very dependent on their leader.
Hogan & Hogan (2002) tend to be
more agreeable, open and extraverted.
Transactional leadership

A leadership style that is

characterized by the
leaders tendency to
control followers
behaviors and to achieve
influence by exchanging
rewards.
Only affect the
subordinates behaviors.
 Laissez-faire

Leaders are those who

adopt a passive approach
and let the group take the
initiative
Leadership and Gender

3 major reason to expect

gender differences in
leadership styles:
Biologically, man and women
are different
Culturally, men and women
have different roles
Perception of men and women
are different.
 Women tend to be more
friendly, kind and unselfish than
men.
Men tend to be dominant,
masterful and assertive.
Feminine traits such as warmth,
nurture and flexibility made
women better leaders and
managers than power oriented
male leaders (Chemers, 2000)
 Eagly & Johnson (1990) , meta-
analyzed 162 studies women
tended to be more democratic
than men.
Eagly et. al (2003) female
leaders tended to be more
transformational than male
( transactional/ laisser-faire
leadership style)
 Conclusions
Traditional approaches to
leadership attempted to
identify the traits that
distinguished between
successful and unsuccessful
leaders.
Three major types of
leadership styles ( Behavioral
approach) are
transformational, transactional
and laissez-faire
 Recent meta- analysis has
reported several links between
established personality traits
and leadership.
Meta-analytic comparison of
gender differences in
leadership style has shown
that female leaders tend to be
more transformational than
male.
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