An estimate of variance due to traits in leadership

Abstract

The rejection by psychologists of the trait explanation of leadership emergence can be attributed to the results of 2 major types of studies: attempts to identify leadership traits and the use of rotation designs. Numerous reviews of the literature consistently note the failure to isolate a specific leadership trait. Using a rotation design, D. C. Barnlund, after varying both the task and member composition of groups and computing the correlation of leadership rank in one group with the average leadership ranks received in all other groups, reported that leadership emergence varied across group situations. Thus, his data suggested that leadership is not a stable characteristic. The present study, however, used D. A. Kenny's (1981) social relations model to reexamine Barnlund's conclusion. This reanalysis suggests that between 49% and 82% (representing lower- and upper-bound estimates) leadership variance can be attributed to some stable characteristic. It is speculated that this characteristic, rather than being a traditional personality trait, may actually involve the ability to perceive the needs and goals of a constituency and to adjust one's personal approach to group action accordingly. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).