The leaders of yester year were percieved to be special people with a knack for rallying the troops and getting the job done at all costs. The next evolution developing a definition for leadership was defing the traits that leaders often possess. Thus the Five Dactor Model of Personality was developed. This allows organizations to more accurately distinguish between the members that have the potential to lead and those that may not be a great fit for leadership positions. The traits identified include:
- Concientiousness(dependability)- this is relativley self-explanatory but the connection to actual leadership is not as clear. Concientousness is more closely connested to the management piece of leadership roles.
- Agreeableness- This is important because teamwork and cooperation are necessary within groups.
- Neuroticism- The abilty to remain clam in the face of stress is a charactersitic that is very important to successful leadership. Those who remain calm are less likely to amke mistakes and be susceptible to “knee-jerk” reactions that are not necessarily the best decision.
- Openness to Experience(Intellectance)- This suggests that leaders are more likley to have an imagination, tolerant and not easily offended by the viewpoint others may take, and genereally curious
- Extraversion(surgency)- decisiveness, competitiveness, and sefl-confidence are key components to a leaders ability to motivate and get them moving in the right direction.
In the next generation of leadership will these FFM components need to be realigned? Many oragnizations are transitioning to leadership from a far in the wake of technological advances that have made this a possibility. For example, a friend has a team of 7 people working for him. He is in Connecticut and the rest of his team is scattered across the US. They meet once a year for a conference. Are the traits needed to successfully lead this team the same as those described in the FFM of Personality?
Penn State. (2013). Psych 485. Retrieved September, 2013, from Courses.worldcampus.psu.edu: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa13/psych485/002/content/02_lesson/12_page.html
KAT SANDERS says
Excellent proposition. Now that we are in the era of globalization, I think there should be a redevelopment of leadership theory, specifically the notion of traits. Although the lesson commentary suggests that the Big Five personality traits are generally agreed-upon in regards to leadership, Funder (2010) presents an argument to the contrary, in which other cultures may place emphasis on other personality traits. For example, in Spanish culture, one valued trait is humor, whereas in Chinese culture, valued traits include harmony, dignity, thift and “ren qing” (interpersonal favor). Likewise, there are many cultures that do not value extraversion in work settings (pp. 527 – 531).
Funder, D. C. (2010). The Personality Puzzle. (5th ed.) Norton & Company, Inc. New York: NY.