AUTHOR: CHARLOTTE AXON

REPORT TO PEARN KANDOLA

INSTITUTE OF WORK

PSYCHOLOGY, SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY

MANAGEMENT SCHOOL, SHEFFIELD S10 1FL

September 2015

Confidential

FINAL REPORT – INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN

LEADERSHIP EMERGENCE: IS IT ALL ABOUT

PERSONALITY?

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN

LEADERSHIP EMERGENCE: IS IT ALL

ABOUT PERSONALITY?

AUTHOR Charlotte Axon

SUPERVISOR

Dr Anna Topakas

PHONE: 07896837192 EMAIL: charlotteaxon10@gmail.com

WEB: linkedin.com/in/charlotteaxon

Final Report – Individual differences in leadership emergence: is it all about personality? Page 3

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1 OVERVIEW

This report outlines research conducted by Charlotte Axon as part requirement for an

MSc at the University of Sheffield and in collaboration with Pearn Kandola. The

project aimed to establish the individual differences and situational influences

associated with leadership emergence in an organisational setting and takes a

quantitative approach.

1.2 PROJECT IMPL EMENTATION

An extensive literature review was conducted to establish the most influential factors

related to individuals emerging as leaders. The study gained responses from 116

managers from a UK-based insurance company using an online survey method.

Participants completed a number of established scales measuring aspects of their

personality, values, motivations, emotional intelligence and leader-subordinate

relationships (independent variables) on leadership emergence (dependent variable).

1.3 MAIN F INDINGS

High conscientiousness, extraversion, emotional stability, narcissism, core self-

evaluations, motivation to lead, achievement values and quality of leader-

subordinate relations were significantly associated with leadership emergence.

This suggests higher levels of these traits were related to greater emergence.

Low agreeableness was significantly associated with leadership emergence. This

suggests higher levels of disagreeableness were related to greater emergence.

Core self-evaluations mediated the relationship between achievement values and

leadership emergence, suggesting that an individual’s core self-judgements could

explain the relationship between their values and emergence as a leader.

Emotional intelligence and openness were not related to leadership emergence.

Similar results were obtained through use of an additional dependent measure,

which found a positive relationship between openness and leadership emergence.

EMOTIONAL

INTELLIGENCE

MOTIVATIONS

PERSONALITY

SELF-

EVALUATIONS

VALUES

RELATIONSHIPS

LEADERSHIP

EMERGENCE

KEY DEFINITIONS

Leadership

Emergence:

concerns traits and

experiences

predisposing a

person to become

perceived by

others as

‘leaderlike’, and

how these enable

their emergence

into a leadership

position.

Personality:

based on the Five

Factor Model

(Costa & McCrae,

1992). Includes

openness,

conscientiousness,

extraversion,

agreeableness, &

emotional

stability.

Narcissism: a trait

encompassing

arrogance, self-

absorption,

feelings of

grandiosity and

entitlement.

Core Self-

Evaluations (CSE):

a trait

encompassing four

components of a

person’s internal

judgements (locus

of control,

emotional

stability, self-

efficacy & self-

esteem).

Final Report – Individual differences in leadership emergence: is it all about personality? Page 4

0

5

10

15

20

25

3.2

7.6

20.4

8.49.8

19.9

12.8

3.1

9.7

22.2

2.9

9.37.7

Per

cen

tage

Factor

Amount of variance in leadership emergence explained by each factor (%)

1.4 REC OMMENDAT IONS

This project focussed on the developmental process in becoming a leader and

identified several personality and non-personality factors. As such, these results could

be utilised for purposes of development, selection, and identifying potential leaders.

Furthermore, combining with traits of effective leaders could yield a more complete

picture of leadership outcomes (i.e. who will lead and who can lead).

Developing aspiring leaders

i. Mentoring programmes

Given the link between high quality supervisor relationships (LMX) and emergence,

mentoring schemes could be implemented that pair subordinates with experienced

colleagues, focussed on establishing trusting and supportive relationships. A meta-

analytic review of the mentoring literature demonstrated higher career outcomes in

mentored individuals compared to controls, although effectiveness depended on

mentoring type (Eby, Allen, Evans, Ng & DuBois, 2008).

ii. Self-efficacy training

Given that CSE was a mediating factor and is directly related to emergence,

developing traits such as self-esteem and self-efficacy may be crucial for those

lacking belief in their abilities to become leader. Programmes focussed on enhancing

employee self-evaluations could be implemented to address this. One evaluation

study of a simple intervention demonstrated greater self-efficacy (and decreased

turnover) compared to controls after 9 weeks (McNatt & Judge, 2008).

Both suggestions also bring additional benefits (e.g. job enrichment, quality of

communications), and can be cost-effective and easily implemented. Of course,

individuals can embark upon attempts to enhance these traits themselves.

Emotional

Intelligence (EI):

the ability to

perceive and

understand

emotion in oneself

and others.

Motivation to

Lead (MTL): the

degree to which a

person assumes

leadership

training, roles, and

responsibilities.

Split into affective

(feelings) and

social-normative

(responsibility)

components.

Achievement

Values: a concern

for long-term

involvement and

competition

against some

standard of

excellence.

LMX: the one-on-

one relationship

between a leader

and follower. Are

varied in quality.

KEY LEARNING POINT

Affective MTL (feelings

towards leading),

Extraversion, Narcissism

and CSE displayed the

strongest relationships

with leadership

emergence

Final Report – Individual differences in leadership emergence: is it all about personality? Page 5

iii. Enhancing motivation

Relationships were found between liking to lead (affective motivation) and having a sense of

responsibility to lead (social-normative motivations) with leadership emergence. Thus within

organisations it is important to recognise that individual motives for adopting a leadership role may

differ. This should be considered when evaluating individuals for particular positions.

It may also be possible to attempt to enhance motivations to lead, by portraying leadership positively

and encouraging more leadership experience (increase liking) and framing the role as one that they

ought to adopt (social-normative).

Identifying leadership potential

In order to direct development initiatives to those deemed ‘high potentials’, accurate identification

of these individuals is required (i.e. knowing which factors predict emergence). Emphasis here is on

developing existing potential (over recruitment), particularly if costs are a limitation. Procedures

currently relied upon are often biased (e.g. competency frameworks), which tend to ignore juniors

possessing the potential to develop and cannot realistically be expected to have trait profiles similar

to experienced leaders. Therefore scales similar to those in this research could be used to identify

future leaders. Combined with traits related to successful leadership, a systematic measure of

potential could be designed specifically to suit an organisation’s future needs.

Assessment and selection

When it comes to leadership decisions in the workplace, the gap between research and practice is

evident (R. Hogan, Curphy & J. Hogan, 1994). Methods for choosing leaders are varied, all adequately

able to predict effective leadership, but are often ignored. Again, bias is inevitable and poor decisions

can be costly.

Similar to the identification of potential, traits related to emergence could be compiled into bespoke

assessment tools, combining an individual’s scores on leadership emergence and effectiveness.

Counteracting scales should be integrated where possible, especially given that individuals possessing

‘dark’ traits are usually socially skilled with high self-esteem (Harris & J. Hogan, 1992).

Can possessing a ‘dark’ trait enable advancement into leadership positions?

Finding narcissism to be associated with leadership emergence

has important implications within organisations.

Narcissistic leaders have shown negative One study found greater business acquisition

effects on follower perceptions, which among narcissistic CEOs over 12 years

in turn relates to reduced job (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007). In some

performance (Judge, LePine & situations high narcissism leads

Rich, 2006). to higher follower ratings.

*The relationship appears more complex than other traits and further research is advised.

Final Report – Individual differences in leadership emergence: is it all about personality? Page 6

2. REFERENCES

Chatterjee, A., & Hambrick, D. C. (2007). It's all about me: Narcissistic chief executive officers and

their effects on company strategy and performance. Administrative Science Quarterly,

52(3), 351-386.

Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Normal personality assessment in clinical practice: The NEO

Personality Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 5-13.

Eby, L. T., Allen, T. D., Evans, S. C., Ng, T., & DuBois, D. L. (2008). Does mentoring matter? A

multidisciplinary meta-analysis comparing mentored and non-mentored individuals.

Journal of vocational behavior, 72(2), 254-267.

Harris, G., & Hogan, J. (1992, April). Perceptions and personality correlates of managerial

effectiveness. Paper presented at the 13th Annual Psychology in the Department of Defense

Symposium, Colorado Springs, CO.

Hogan, R., Curphy, G. J., & Hogan, J. (1994). What we know about leadership: Effectiveness and

personality. American Psychologist, 49(6), 493-504.

Judge, T. A., LePine, J. A., & Rich, B. L. (2006). Loving yourself abundantly: relationship of the

narcissistic personality to self-and other perceptions of workplace deviance, leadership, and

task and contextual performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4), 762-776.

McNatt, D. B., & Judge, T. A. (2008). Self-efficacy intervention, job attitudes, and turnover: A field

experiment with employees in role transition. Human Relations, 61(6), 783-810.