What makes a prime minister great?: A leadership trait analysis of the effectiveness of british prime ministers from 1902 to 2004

Abstract

What role do the Leadership Trait Analysis (LTA) criteria projected by a British Prime Minister (PM) have on the perceived effectiveness of their time in office? In this paper, the analysis of 20th-century British PMs utilized automated at-a-distance content analysis and the LTA coding system to determine the conceptual complexity, ability to control events, and need for power scores projected by PMs. The impact these traits had on the perceived effectiveness of the totality of the PMs’ tenure in office, as measured by the 2004 MORI/University of Leeds survey, was then examined via one-tailed ordinary least squares regression. This project provides evidence that British PMs who project traits associated with the LTA measure regarding strong power motivation are significantly viewed as more effective while in office. These findings provide more than a novel historical profile of British PMs. The relationship between effective leadership and LTA traits could be utilized by political campaigns, especially given the introduction of prime ministerial debates, to portray a prime ministerial candidate as more politically effective than his/her competition.