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Leadership and Character

Jisel Munoz

South Texas College

ORLG 3311: Issues Organizational Leadership

Dr. Michele Guajardo

March 04, 2022

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Abstract

In leadership, there are many different aspects of what makes a true leader. Anyone can be a

leader, but there is a remarkable difference in just being a leader to an effective leadership. One

of the main qualities an effective leader represents is character. Character is what defines a

leader. It distinguishes a feature or quality of that person such as confidence, accountability, or

simply creativity. Some characteristics that an excellent leader present may be integrity,

compassion, support, and inspiration to name a few. Good character in leaders is typically shown

in the ways that they interact with others, they’re ability to influence positively. Throughout this

paper there will be articles and research that support the idea of how character affects leadership

in any type of setting.

Keywords: leadership, styles, theories, characteristic traits,

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Leadership and Character

Leadership can be defined and described in numerous ways it is hard to work a single

definition to it. A leader can be seen as someone who takes initiative to lead, improve, and move

forward. Many of the leaders have some common characteristics such as the ability to influence,

communication skills, ability to understand and integrity to name a few. H1 -There is a

relationship between leadership and character. The definition of characteristics can be viewed as

features or qualities that a person, in this case that a leader has. Characteristics that leaders tend

to aspire are confidence and trust.

It is important to understand character especially in an organization. By understanding

character, you can see how it can affect positively or negatively. Now, leadership is a positive

term that when combined with positive character, they make a beautiful mix of an effective

leader. There are many managers that are the leaders of organizations, but that does not

necessarily mean that they are effective leaders who are able to encourage, motivate, and are able

to get things done constructively. There are many different resources such as assessments that let

a person know their personality. Knowing a person’s personality is key to knowing the

combination of characteristic traits and qualities that make the person distinctive. Therefore,

good characteristic traits that make up a person’s personality is vital to gain trust, because if

people do not trust, they will not follow. To confirm, or not, my hypothesis, we will be analyzing

articles to see if there is in fact a relationship between leadership and character.

Literature Review

Personality in leadership

There are many traits that can highlight what a leader is or what they often have.

Personality is the combination of qualities or characteristics that refers to individuals’

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differences. The big five personality trait assessment has a great insight of what a trait a leader

may approach to. Conscientiousness people are more likely to emerge as a leader since they

follow some of the traits like taking initiative, and organization skills (Organizational Behavior,

2017). Overall, the relationship is using a person’s characteristics to determine how they can be

innovating and prosper as leaders.

In the article, “Character matters: The network structure of leader character and its

relation to follower positive outcomes,” Monzani, et, al. (2021) they investigate the leader

character to follower positive outcomes. The authors state that there has been links between

positive leadership behaviors to follower traits such as well-being, resilience, and perception.

The study conduced on the article was a great step forward in the development of leader

character and how the character approaches work together to be motivated, productive, and have

organizational commitment. Accountability, collaboration, drive, humility, and integrity are all

traits that contribute to commitment (Monzani, et, al., 2021). To gather the information, this are

all positive traits that have a direct impact on follower positive outcomes as the correlation

implicates.

To be a great leader, there must be great character building. For example, a leader’s

character can be affected negatively if their character is proven to be untrustworthy. To prevent

that from happening, a leader must have a strong character and must demonstrate competence to

gain trust. A leader is also accepting and appreciates different feedback, which is essential to

earn respect. This actively demonstrates that if there are people with poor character are unlikely

to be an effective leader. An effective leader would be a leader who has competence, has

communication skills, are empathetic, and therefore can motivate others in their group or

organization to achieve a set of goals or objectives.

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Leadership styles

In the article, “Optimizing Authentic Leadership,” (2022) they introduce that there are

different traits that tend to be more significant in different leadership styles. The reason for this

being is that there are certain traits such as transparency and morality that people strongly want a

leader to emphasize. Not only does the analysis from the article confirm that there are some

types of personalities and traits that make a leader stand out, making it essential to demonstrate

the qualities to be successful.

There are many different leadership styles for all state of affairs. Vasilescu (2019) states

the six leadership styles that are based on the criteria of the leader’s modus operandi, the style

described in a phrase, emotional intelligence competencies, description of situations with

maximum effect of leadership style chosen, and overall impact on climate. Furthermore, the six

styles she mentions in a chart are commanding, visionary, affiliative, democratic, pacesetting,

and coaching. Vasilescu (2019) breaks it down into different categories as one categorized as

when the style works best. This helps determine what leadership style is most affective by the

type of situation as leadership styles are more effective when used in the fitted circumstances.

Democratic leadership tends to be the most effective and most used leadership style

because it is highly participative. However, it may all depend on some varying factors. For

example, the organization, their level of decision making, and the size of an organization and the

organization’s position. Regardless, Vasilescu (2019), concludes that it is ultimately important to

understand that there are many factors that determine why some people have great leadership

ranging from personality traits to the situation in which a person leads. Therefore elucidating a

positive correlation of great leadership and personality which in theory is the combination of

characteristics.
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Leader behavior approach

In “Organizational Behavior,” (2017), there has been some research done by the Ohio

State University and University of Michigan that state that there are two broad spectrums of

behaviors that leaders possess which are task-oriented or people-oriented behaviors. Task

oriented behaviors give specific sets of instructions to employees to ensure that the

organizational goals are being met. People oriented behaviors leaders are those who genuinely

care about the well-being of their employees, and they demonstrate it.

Leadership is not only about learning how to interact well with others and being a good

leader. Leadership is also shown through other areas such as employee performance. In the

article, “Employees' task performance and propensity to take charge: the role of LMX and

leader's task orientation,” they investigate the effects of employee performance through leader–

member exchange (LMX) and the leader's task-oriented behavior's moderating role. The study

then comes to show positive aspects of employee performance association with the changed

behaviors and LMX. (Ahmed, et, al., 2021). The change through mediated mechanism shows

how the behavior in their character shows a relationship between the leadership in employees.

Although it may seem that showing both behaviors would be effective, there is no

research to support it. However, in “Effectiveness of broad and specific leadership behaviors,”

they demonstrated the differences as well as which one worked better in different situations.

People-oriented behaviors was significantly related to job satisfaction, whereas task-oriented was

the strongest in effective management, (Gary et al., 2019). The results of the conducting research

in the article mentioned above support the idea that specific leader behaviors can improve

leadership theory.
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Theories in leadership

There are also a variety of theories that consist of different leadership approaches based

on certain characteristics and settings. According to the Fielder’s Contingency Theory, a leader’s

style is based is measured by a scale called the Least Preferred Coworker Scale (Organizational

Leadership). It is based on personality traits that determine if the LPC leader would be successful

(favorable) or if the situation would be unfavorable. According to this theory, there is certainly a

relationship between leadership and characteristics. The reason for that being is that is based on

the scale. If the leader has good relationship with people in a high position power and the task at

hand is structured, that means the situation is favorable.

Transformational leadership theory approaches changing the desires of the followers to

match the leaders. As mentioned before, an effective leader must portrait some characteristics

that go along. A transformational leader has idealized influence, stimulates intellectual

intelligence, inspires motivation, and is considerate. Dwirosanti (2017) conducted a study

representing how transformational leadership has a direct positive affect on personality as well as

organizational citizen behavior. The overall results conclude that it is evident that for an

organization to succeed there needs to be a strong sense of leadership.

Findings

To further elaborate on the research and findings, there are some approaches that

correlate personality, characteristics, traits, and behaviors in a sense that if a person shows many

of the leadership styles, they are likely to be a successful leader depending on the situation. In

the fielder’s contingency theory, they talk about how based on a person knowing themselves and

understanding their personality, they might find a suitable situation in which a leader can benefit

from. Once people are placed on the right path, they are more likely to be a leader then.
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Without a doubt, the articles that have been reviewed all support the fact that there is a

relationship between character and leadership. The results of all the analysis and case study all

conclude that if there are positive characteristics, behaviors, personalities, and overall character

there is a direct positive affect on leadership. This implies that good leadership characteristics

can be learned. This information is valuable to improve leadership amongst an organization as

well as training and development for managers to become effective leaders.

Conclusion

To sum up everything that has been stated so far, there are some characteristics that if a

person possesses, they’re more likely to be a leader. For the included research of the Big Five

Personality Assessment, a person who is scores highly on extroversion and conscientious is

highly related to leadership, which further states that there is correlation. After researching and

analyzing multiple case studies, they all concluded that there are certain traits that a great

effective leader is distinguished from. An effective leader must be able to work with all the

different personalities that individuals have.

With respect to my hypothesis, character in leadership does in fact go hand in hand.

Thus, there is a direct relationship between the two. For future research, testing the variables

independently to compare and contrast would be an opportunity to further analyze which would

have a greater impact over the independent and dependent variables. This is due to the variables

being very similar to each other yet serving different purposes. Over and all, leadership is the

behavioral process of the ability to lead under the correct guidance. Therefore, the way the leader

interacts and responds to shows their character. If a leader has good character, it will show by

measuring their qualities of influence, form trust, communicate, and the success of their

organization.
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References

Ahmed, I., Afzal, R., & Abdul Rasid, S. Z. (2021). Employees’ task performance and propensity

to take charge: the role of LMX and leader’s task orientation. Journal of Management

Development, 40(3), 224–239. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.1108/JMD-08-2020-0244

Dwirosanti, N. (2017). Impact of Transformational Leadership, Personality and Job Involvement

to Organizational Citizenship Behavior. IJHCM: International Journal of Human Capital

Management. https://doi-org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.21009/IJHCM.01.02.04

Monzani, L., Seijts, G. H., & Crossan, M. M. (2021). Character matters: The network structure

of leader character and its relation to follower positive outcomes. PloS One, 16(9),

e0255940. https://doi-org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.1371/journal.pone.0255940

Optimizing authentic leadership: Why the big five personality traits are significant.

(2022). Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal.

https://doi-org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.1108/DLO-06-2021-0107

Organizational behavior. (2017). University of Minnesota of Libraries Publishing

Vasilescu, M. (2019). Leadership Styles and Theories in an Effective Management

Activity. Analele Universităţii Constantin Brâncuşi Din Târgu Jiu : Seria Economie, 4,

47–52. https://doaj.org/article/756f5516ec5e4bef9efe3cd86a7568e4

Yukl, G., Mahsud, R., Prussia, G., & Hassan, S. (2019). Effectiveness of broad and specific

leadership behaviors. Personnel Review, 48(3), 774–783. https://doi-

org.ezproxy.southtexascollege.edu/10.1108/PR-03-2018-0100