ABSTRACT
This study examined whether personality, as represented
by the five-factor model, influences preferences towards leadership
styles. To explore this issue, 166 nursing employees completed a
questionnaire that assessed their personality and preferred leadership
style. Extraversion and conscientiousness coincided with favorable
attitudes towards transformational leaders.
Agreeableness and openness were inversely related to attitudes towards
transactional leadership. Neuroticism was positively associated,
but agreeableness was negatively associated, with attitudes towards
laissez-faire leadership. Finally, extraversion and neuroticism
moderated the impact of agreeableness and conscientiousness on attitudes
towards laissez-faire leadership.
These findings suggest the merits of transformational and transactional
leadership might depend on the personality of followers.
Over the past two decades, two predominant and distinct characterizations
of the consummate leader have emerged. First, the exemplary leader,
as delineated by Bass (1985), inspires followers to transform, elevate,
and coordinate, rather than merely pursue and fulfill, their goals
and objectives. In particular, these leaders, designated as transformational,
challenge the traditional but obsolete practices, procedures, and
assumptions of the organization and then supersede these ineffective
practices with an inspiring vision of the future (Bass & Avolio,
1990,
1994). To realize their vision, transformational leaders demonstrate
the behaviors and qualities they champion and consider the unique
desires, concerns, and qualities of each follower (see also Bass
& Avolio, 1997; Conger, 1999; Martin & Epitropaki, 2001;
Yammarino, Spangler, & Bass, 1993). Transformational leadership,
in short, entails the promulgation of goals that transcend egocentric
interests and current expectations but instead emphasize collective
values and future objectives (Porter & Bigley, 2001; Yukl, 1999,
2002).
A wealth of research has indeed corroborated the benefits of transformational
leaders. These studies often contrast this style with transactional
leadership, in which the principal role of leaders is to offer rewards
and incentives to employees who fulfill specific goals as well as
provide feedback and criticism in response to shortfalls (see Bass,
1985; Bass & Avolio, 1997).
Relative to transactional leadership, transformational leadership
has been demonstrated to enhance the performance of workgroups and
organizations, as manifested by improvements in financial indices
(e.g. Barling, Weber, & Kelloway, 1996), quality audits (Sosik
& Dionne, 1997), sales performance (e.g. McColl-Kennedy &
Anderson, 2002), and many other measures (see Flood et al., 2000;
Sosik, Avolio, Kahai, & Jung, 1998). More specifically, transformational
leadership also fosters creativity in followers and innovation in
teams (e.g.
Jung, 2001; Shin & Zhou, 2003; Sosik, 1997). Furthermore, transformational
leadership enhances work attitudes and beliefs, including satisfaction
with leaders (e.g. Conger, Kanungo, & Menon, 2000), satisfaction
with the job (e.g. Martin & Epitropaki, 2001), self-efficacy
(Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1996), and commitment (e.g. Bycio, Hackett,
& Allen, 1995).
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