Looking for Direction, Inspiration, Hope and Faith: The Search for a Visionary Leader

Abstract

In an increasingly complex global competitive environment, vision has become indispensable for organizations to perform and survive. Vision is now considered one of the most important organizational dimensions.For this reason, organizations are constantly searching for visionary leaders to maintain their competitiveness. Although the concept of visionary leadership is well known, the antecedents of this form of leadership are less so. Thus, this study aims to demystify the nature of visionary leaders and investigatethe relationship between personality and visionary leadership. Based on theBigFive Inventory, the resultsreveala significant relationship for four of the five personality dimensions. Thus, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeablenessandextraversionallhave a positive relationship with visionary leadership.This information should help organizations identify and understand visionary leaders and recruit them more easily.