Personality Traits and Leadership

• Traits
 Are distinguishing personal characteristics
• Personality
 Is a combination of traits that classifies an individual’s
behavior
 Is developed based on genetics and environmental
factors.

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Personality Profiles

• Identify individual stronger and weaker traits

• Are used to ensure a proper match between the
worker and the job
• Are also used to categorize people as a means
of predicting job success

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 The Big Five Model of Personality
Correlates with Leadership

Surgency

Agreeableness Adjustment

Conscientiousness Openness to
experience

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 The Big Five

• Surgency (Dominance)
 Leadership and extraversion traits:
 Wanting to be in charge
• Agreeableness
 Traits related to getting along with people:
 Sociable, friendly
• Adjustment
 Traits related to emotional stability:
 Self-control, calm, good under pressure,
relaxed, secure, and positive

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 The Big Five (cont’d)

• Conscientiousness
 Traits related to achievement
 Responsible and dependable
• Openness to Experience
 Traits related to the willingness to try new things
 Seek change

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 The Big Five Including Traits of Effective Leaders

The Big Five Model Leadership Traits

of Personality within the Big Five
Surgency a. Dominance
b. Extraversion
c. Energy/Determination
Agreeableness d. Sociability/
e. Emotional intelligence
Adjustment f. Emotional Stability and
Narcissism
g. Self-confidence
Conscientiousness h. Dependability
i. Integrity
Openness j. Flexibility
k. Locus of control

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Why Understanding Personality
Is Important

• Understanding people’s personalities is

important because personality affects behavior
as well as perceptions and attitudes
• Knowing personalities help to explain and
predict others’ behavior and job performance

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 How Executives/ Leaders Become Derailed

• Using a bullying leadership style :- Is viewed as

threatening, insensitive, and abrasive/ Harsh
• Being viewed as being cold, aloof, and arrogant
• Betraying personal trust
• Being regarded as self-centered, overly ambitious
and thinking of the next job
• Having specific performance problems with the
business
• Over-managing and unable to delegate or build a
team

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Traits of Effective Leaders

Internal
Internal locus
locus Integrity
Integrity
of
of control
control

Energy/
Energy/ Flexibility
Flexibility
Determination
Determination
Traits
Traits of
of Effective
Effective
Dominance
Leaders
Leaders Sensitivity
Sensitivity
Dominance to
to others
others

Self-
Self- Intelligence
Intelligence
confidence
confidence
Stability
Stability

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 The Personality Profile of Effective Leaders

• Achievement Motivation Theory

 Attempts to explain and predict behavior and
performance based on a person’s need for
achievement, power, and affiliation
 Posits that one of the three needs tends to be
dominant in an individual and unconsciously
motivates the individual’s behavior

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Characteristics of the Need for Achievement
(n Ach)

• The unconscious concern for excellence in

accomplishments through individual efforts
 Internal locus of control
 Self-confidence
 High energy
 Goal oriented
 Realistic goals
 Moderate risks
 Competitive

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Characteristics of the Need for Power
(n Pow)

• The unconscious concern for influencing others

and seeking positions of authority
 Want to be in charge (in authority)
 Self-confident
 High energy
 Competitive
 Ambitious
 Less concerned with people

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Characteristics of the Need for Affiliation
(n Aff)

• The unconscious concern for developing,

maintaining, and restoring close personal
relationships
 Strong personal relationships
 Sensitivity to others
 Joiners
 Prefer “helping professions”
 Concerned about what people think of them
 Usually have low need for power, avoid management
or leadership

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Leader Motive Profile (LMP)

• Is a set of traits that match up to the “typical”

effective leader
• High Leader Motive profile: Tends to have a high
need for socialized power, need for achievement
and affiliation and personalized power.
 Socialized power
 Used for the good of one’s self, the group,and the
organization
 Personalized power
 Used for personal gain at the expense of others

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Example: Nelsen Mandella

• • Low Mid high

Passion
• Risk taking
• Influence
• CS
• Itegrity
• Self awareness

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Leadership Attitudes
• Attitude:- Positive or negative feelings about people,
things, and issues
• Theory X and Theory Y
 Attempt to explain and predict leadership behavior and
performance based on leader’s attitude about followers
• Pygmalion Effect
 Proposes that leaders’ attitudes, expectations and treatment
of followers , explain and predict followers’ behavior and
performance. Effective leaders train ordinary employees to do
a great job, their expectations influence the behavior and
performance of followers
• Self-Concept :- Refers to the positive or negative
attitudes people have about themselves.
Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)
 Theory X versus Theory Y

• Theory X Attitude: • Theory Y Attitude:

 Employees dislike work  Employees like to work

 Employees must be closely  Employees do not need to

supervised be closely supervised
 Managers display more  Managers display more
coercive, autocratic participative leadership
leadership
 Managers use internal
 Managers use external motivation and rewards
means of control—threats
and punishment

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Concepts of Self

• Self-Concept
 Refers to the positive or negative attitudes people
have about themselves
• Self-Efficacy
 Is the belief in one’s own capability to perform in a
specific situation
• Self-Confidence
 The belief that one can be successful
• All three are closely related

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Ethical Leadership

• Ethics
 Are the standards of right and wrong that influence
behavior
 Right behavior is considered ethical
 Wrong behavior is considered unethical

 Business ethics, and ethics codes, guide and constrain everyday

business conduct, that influence behavior.

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Factors Influencing Ethical Behavior

• Personality Traits and Attitudes

• Ethical behavior is related to individual needs and
personality traits, Being ethical is part of integrity
• People with positive attitudes about ethics tend to
be ethical
 To gain power, people may be unethical or Irresponsible
persons may be unethical
 Self-confidence can allow a person to make ethical
choices.
• Unethical behavior is more likely found in
irresponsible people who are: Emotionally unstable
• External locus of control
Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)
 Moral Development and Ethics

• Moral Development
 Refers to understanding right and wrong and choosing to
do the right thing
• Levels of Personal Moral Development
 Preconventional
 Based on self-interest
 Conventional
 Based on expectations of others
 Postconventional
 Based on universal principles of right and wrong, regardless of the
leader or group’s expectations.

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Levels of Moral Development

Level of Development

Post conventional Behavior is motivated by universal principles of right and wrong, regardless of the expectations
of the leader or group. One seeks to balance the concerns for self with those of others and the
(Universal common good. He or she will follow ethical principles even if they violate the law at the
Principals) risk of social rejection, economic loss, and physical punishment (Martin Luther King, Jr.,
broke what he considered unjust laws and spent time in jail seeking universal dignity and
justice). “I don’t lie to customers because it is wrong.” The common leadership style is
visionary and committed to serving others and a higher cause while empowering
followers to reach this level.

Conventional Living up to expectations of acceptable behavior defined by others motivates behavior

to fulfill duties and obligations. It is common for followers to copy the behavior of the leaders
(Other’s/ Social and group. If the group (can be society/organization/ department) accepts lying, cheating,
behavior) stealing, and so on, when dealing with customers/suppliers/government/ competitors, so will
the individual. On the other hand, if these behaviors are not accepted, the individual will not do
them either. Peer pressure is used to enforce group norms. “I lie to customers because the
other sales reps do it too.” It is common for lower-level managers to use a similar leadership
style of the higher-level managers.

Preconvention Self-interest motivates behavior to meet one’s own needs to gain rewards while
following rules and being obedient to authority to avoid punishment. “I lie to customers to
(individual behavior) sell more products and get higher commission checks.” The common leadership style is
autocratic toward others while using one’s position for personal advantage.

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 The Situational Aspect of Ethics

• People are more likely to act unethically:

 In highly competitive situations
 In unsupervised situations
 When there is no formal ethics policy
 When unethical behavior is not punished or is
rewarded

Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)

 Discussion Question

• Do you believe that if you use ethical behavior

it will pay off in the long run?
• How people use to Justify Unethical Behavior
• Can ethics be taught and learned?
• Do we still have Theory X managers? Why?
• Does Ethical Behavior Pay?
 There is a positive relationship between ethical
behavior and leadership effectiveness
 The unethical acts of employees can ruin
organizations
Dr Ranjana Dureja (Faculty LJMBA)