Leadership and Personality

Chris Moran and Maurice Joseph

Article I
Personality and Transformational and
Transactional Leadership: A Meta-Analysis
Joyce E. Bono and Timothy A. Judge

Background Information
PsycInfo search - 12% of all articles

published since 1990 on the topic of

leadership contain the keywords personality
and leadership
Strong scholarly interest in the bases of
leadership behavior
Two meta-analyses by Lord (1986) and Judge
(2002) reported associations between
leadership and personality traits

Objective
Recent research attention has been focused on

three types of leadership: transformational,

transactional, and charismatic
Previous research has shown that these
leadership dimensions have been valid predictors
of follower job performance and satisfaction
The objective of this study is to extend what is
known about the association between personality
and leadership by focusing directly on
transactional and transformational leadership

Importance

Understanding the relationship between

personality traits and leadership
behaviors has important implications for
the selection, training, and development
of new leaders

Determine what types of leadership

training will be effective and which
individuals will gain the most from them

Transformational Leadership
Idealized Influence: high standards of moral and
ethical conduct, are held in high personal
regard, and engender loyalty from followers
Inspirational Motivation: a strong vision for the
future based on values and ideals
Intellectual Stimulation: challenge organizational
norms, encourage divergent thinking, and push
followers to develop innovative strategies
Individual Consideration: aim at recognizing the
unique growth and developmental needs of
follower

Transactional Leadership
Contingent Reward: monitoring and

controlling employees through rational or

economic means
Management by Exception-Active: monitoring
performance and taking action if necessary
Management by Exception-Passive: intervene
only when problems become serious
Laissez-faire: non-leadership or avoidance of
leadership responsibilities

Big Five Personality Traits

Extraversion: assertive, active, upbeat,

talkative, energetic and optimistic

(Costa & McCrae, 1992)

Experience and express positive emotion

(Watson & Clark, 1997)

Prediction

Positively related to charisma, intellectual

stimulation, and transformational leadership

overall

Big Five Personality Traits

Neuroticism: tendency to experience

negative affects, such as fear, sadness,

guilt, and anger (Costa & McCrae, 1992)
Less likely to lead or involve themselves in

their employees efforts (Bass, 1985)

Prediction

Negatively related to charisma, intellectual

stimulation, and transformational leadership

overall
Positively related to passive leadership

Big Five Personality Traits

Openness to experience: tendencies to

be creative, introspective, imaginative,

resourceful, and insightful (John, 1999)

Tend to have flexible attitudes and engage

in divergent thinking (McCrae, 1994)

Prediction

Postively related to charisma, intellectual

stimulation, and transformational leadership

overall

Big Five Personality Traits

Agreeableness: tendency to be

cooperative, trusting, gentle, and kind

(Graziano & Eisenberg, 1997)
Likely to be concerned with employees

growth and development needs, and to

reward them appropriately
Prediction

Positively related to charisma, individualized

consideration and contingent reward

Negatively related to passive leadership

Big Five Personality Traits

Conscientiousness: cautious, deliberate, self-

disciplined, and tend to be well organized

(Costa & McCrae, 1992)

Tend to be goal and detail oriented, and honor

integrity (Hogan & Ones, 1997)
Prediction
Positively related to contingent reward, and management

by exception-active
Negatively related to passive leadership

Methods: Literature Search and Meta-Analysis

Researchers obtained 26 articles containing

384 correlations between personality traits

and transformational and transactional
leadership, and performed a meta-analysis of
the correlations
Personality traits were generally self-reported
Leadership measures used were mainly the
Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire

Other measures used included the Leadership

Practices Inventory, and ad-hoc measurements

Results
Extraversion

Strong relationship with all three transformational

leadership behaviors
Strongest correlation of study was extraversion
and charisma
Negative association with passive leadership

Neuroticism

Negative relationship with all three

transformational leadership behaviors
Positive association with passive leadership

Results (continued)
Agreeableness and Conscientiousness had

negative associations with passive leadership

All traits except neuroticism were negatively
associated with exception-passive leadership
All other associations were deemed by the
researchers as weak, or showing a great deal
of variability, causing them to be of little
practical use

Positive Points
The study indicates that extraversion

may be an important trait in predicting

and understanding leadership
Extraversion had the strongest correlation

with transformational leadership of the big

five personality traits
It may be worthwhile to focus future
research on leadership towards
extraversion

Positive Points
The participants included in the studies

used were actual leaders behaving in

authentic leadership situations

Reduces bias of raters leadership theories

Negative Points
The Big Five may not be the best way

to discover personality antecedents of

ratings of transformational and
transactional leadership.

More narrow or specific traits may be

relevant in predicting and understanding
transformational and transactional
leadership

Negative Points (continued)

Focus on ratings of leadership

behaviors, rather than on broader

assessments such as effectiveness or
emergence, reduced the extent to
which implicit theories account for the
personality-leadership link.

The strongest personality-leader behavior

rating link in the study was found for
charisma

Take Home Messages

Extraversion was the strongest

correlate of ratings of transformational

and transactional leadership.
It is critical to gain a deeper
understanding of how leadership
behaviors are developed.

Article II
Putting Personality in Social Context:
Extraversion, Emergent Leadership, and The
Availability of Rewards
Lorne Campbell, Jeffry A. Simpson, Mark Stewart
and John Manning

Objective
In the first study, on leadership and behavior, it

was found that extraversion had the strongest

association with leadership behaviors
Extraverted people are generally more
sociable and sociability forms the core of
extraversion
Praise, attention, power, and social status
should be strong reinforcers, particularly for
higher extroverted people (Gray, 1972)

Hypothesis
More extraverted men should behave in a

more outgoing manner and should emerge as

group leaders
Highly extraverted men should be more
strongly motivated to display group leadership
behaviors when observed by an evaluator
then when not observed
They should be more strongly motivated to
display group leadership when being
evaluated by a female observer than a male
observer

Methods
228 male undergraduate students at Texas

A&M University
Participants filled out questionnaires of
personality trait measures and leader
experience items
Participants returned one week later in fourperson groups to participate in a Leaderless
Group Discussion (LGD)
Groups were randomly assigned to be
observed by an attractive female observer, an
attractive male observer, or no observer

Results
According to self and peer ratings, more

extraverted men were more likely to

emerge as leaders, but only when
observed by an attractive female
Extraversion did not correlate with a
desire to lead when a male observer
was present or when there was a lack
of an observer

Take Home Messages

More extraverted men do not emerge

as group leaders in all situations

A reward was required to motivate

extraverted men, which generated

behavior (leadership) designed to
achieve desired goals

Leadership in Contemporary Organizations

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Article III
Personality, gender, and transformational
leadership: Investigating differential
prediction for male and female leaders.
Emily Elizabeth Duehr

Objectives
This dissertation integrates theory and

empirical findings on personality,

leadership, and gender in an attempt to
gain a better understanding of whether
personality differentially predicts
leadership behavior for men and
women.

Objectives (continued)
Two-Fold Experiment:
First, it aimed to refine understanding of the

relationship between personality and

leadership by considering an important
potential moderator.
Second, this research examined differential
prediction by gender, as any differences
would have implications for the fair
assessment and promotion of male and
female leaders.

Results
The research identified differential

prediction by gender when using

personality traits to predict
transformational leadership behaviors.\
Instances of differential prediction were
found for each of the personality traits
examined: extraversion, neuroticism,
and agreeableness.

Results (continued)
The most important finding was for

extraversion, which emerged as a

stronger predictor of transformational
leadership for women relative to men.

Take Home Message

Transformational leadership behaviors

are viewed as more effective in women

relative to men.
This research suggests that more
consideration of differential prediction
and gender differences in leadership
behavior is warranted.

Leadership in Contemporary
Organizations
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