Introduction
Leadership is a means of social influence whereby a person is able to rally support and help from others for achievement of a shared mission or accomplishment of a shared goal. In particular, leadership refers to the potential of management to plan and complete challenging goals, fast track decisive action, beat competition, and mentor employees to perform to their most achievable level. Leadership therefore entails guiding a business and its employees towards achievement of a common goal. Workers require information on the company’s goals and pursue it. Also, leadership entails coaching employees how to perform effectively in their roles and regular supervision of their completion of those tasks. Leadership also involves serving as a role model for staff.
Historical background of Trait Theory of Leadership
Leadership styles vary across the globe as characterized by the Eastern-Western disparity in leadership style as well as the differences between European and Americans perspective on leadership. A multitude of leadership concept has come forward over time. The earliest theory of leadership was trait theory of leadership, based on the view that leadership is entrenched in personal character. Trait leadership focuses on a collective pattern of individual attributes that reflect a variety of unique personality. According to trait theory leadership these unique personality traits promote leader’s consistent success throughout a wide range of organizational and group circumstances. Trait theory of leadership emerged from the early focus of leadership studies on the discovery of a collection of genetic characteristics that differentiate leaders and non-leaders. The theory, therefore, rests on the maxim that “leaders are born rather than made”. Trait theory, measure the effectiveness of leaders in terms of the level of influence wielded by the leader in group or individual task performance, satisfaction of his/her followers, and overall success in achievement of organizational goals. Trait theorists contend that leadership is exclusive to a select few persons with specific immutable traits, which are irreproducible through development. Despite vehement criticism of trait theory of leadership by modern scholars, research affirms the influence of personality traits on a leader’s accomplishments. Further research confirms that effective leaders uniquely differ from non-leader persons in their possession of key personality attributes that considerably influence their effectiveness. Acknowledgement of the significance of key personality traits of a leader that influence his/her success can facilitate organizations’ training, recruitment and development of leaders.
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Proponents of trait theory of leadership included Thomas Carlyle as reflected in his “Heroes and Hero Worship” study confirmation of a relationship between certain skills, talents and natural attributes of men and their ascendency to power. Other supporters of trait theory included Francis Galton whose research demonstrate inheritance of leadership whereby the number of eminent relatives decline across generations.
Alternative theories of leadership emerged in the mid-20 th century driven by qualitative studies to disproof trait theory under the work of scholars such as Stogdill, Bird, and Mann. For instance, Stogdill (1948) and Mann (1959) review of trait theory literatures revealed that although individual traits such as extroversion and dominance repeatedly appeared throughout more than a hundred studies revealed by Stogdill. In particular, Stogdill (1948) study showed that individuals who effectively served as leaders in a given scenario did not automatically fit as effective leaders in dissimilar situations. Consequently, scholars no longer described leadership as enduring personal traits, since situational perspective suggested that a leader’s can serve effectively in a given situation but fail in another dissimilar situation (Stogdill, 1948). Consequently, focus on leadership shifted to research on the behavior of the leader that determined his/her success. Behavioral approach to leadership dominated leadership studies for the better part of the second half of the 20 th century (Bono, Ilies and Gerhardt, 2002).
Development of new research measures and methods helped the reestablishment of trait theory as an authentic perspective in leadership studies. The new research measures and methods include the round robin research protocol which reconfirmed that people can realistically serve as effective leaders throughout a wide range of tasks and situations (ASTM International, 1996). Meta-analyzes statistical studies in the 1980s further helped in quantitative analyzes of a holistic image of past theories on trait leadership. The new leadership research methods revealed a considerable link between the emergence of leadership and possession of certain personality traits. Among the personality traits empirically associated with emergence of leadership includes adaptability, conscientiousness, efficacy, intelligence, and extraversion and experience openness. Nevertheless, trait theory still faces growing criticism due to its unsophisticated conceptual frameworks. Leadership scholars cite several limitations of leadership theory. The limitations include its focus on a finite group of personal characteristics, including the Big Five character traits to the detriment of intention, social skillfulness, problem-solution expertise, cognitive capabilities, values, and professional skills. Trait theory also overlooks amalgamation or patterns of multiple traits and fails to differentiate time nonmalleable leadership traits from situational bound and influenced leadership traits.
Explain how your topic applies to human resources management
Latest studies empirically confirm association between certain personality traits and the emergence of leadership in organizational context. For instance, Siegling, Nielsen and Petride (2014) founds a strong connection between trait emotional intelligence or self-efficacy and leadership across large European international companies. In particular, logistic-regression analyses of data showed a significant relationship between leaders and their cognitive capability and their trait emotional intelligence competency. Siegling et al. (2014) study, underscores the importance of high emotional intelligence trait or self-efficacy and cognitive capability in management and leadership positions. Trait emotional intelligence refers to emotional self-perceptions constellations situated at the bottommost part of personality hierarchy.
A sizable volume of literature affirms Siegling, Nielsen and Petride (2014) evidence on personality trait relevance as predictor of leadership-associated constructs. Among them include Julie, Bono and Gerhardt (2002) meta-analyzes, which demonstrates that the entire Big Five personality traits excluding agreeableness predicts industry independence, leadership and the specific task of the leader. However, trait emotional intelligence presents a more detailed, domain-specific description of leadership different from the Big Five generalization. In particular, trait emotional intelligence encompasses domain-specific traits such as optimism, perception, assertiveness, emotional expression, and management.
Several studies illustrate the connection between trait emotional intelligence components; optimism, perception, assertiveness, emotional expression, and management, and multiple leadership traits. The studies include Barling, Slater and Kelloway (2000) study that show a link between emotional quotient inventory score and three characteristic of transformational leadership including inspirational motivation, idealized influence, and empathy.
Another aspect of trait leadership empirically associated with job performance is ethical practices. In particular, the latest study of ethical leadership underscores the importance of strong character, personality, and role modeling in corporate leadership (Toor and Ofori, 2009). According to Toor and Ofori (2009) ethical leadership also encompasses personality traits such as integrity, apathy, honesty, and fairness whereby leaders demonstrate behaviors that help others and avoid from behaviors that harm other people.
As articulated in ethical leadership, human resource management goes beyond the role of enforcement or policing staff adherence to “organizational code of conduct” by staff to setting a moral example for staff to follow. Ethical training and formal ethical codes rarely succeed without the consistency of the ethical behavior and practices of senior management with what they train their staff. Leaders are therefore key in setting the tone of staff behavior through appraisal, promotion and strategies. In particular, leaders have the role of setting the tone for organizational values and norms by living up to expectations and encouraging followers to follow their lead.
Likewise, negative role models of unethical behavior by corporate leaders have a cancerous effect on organizational ethical behavior. For instance, perception of leader’s ruthlessness and apathy in their corporate relationship with staff pass the same message of unethical relationship among employees and unethical performance. Instead, employees value managers who are credible, fair, honest, and respectful. Similarly, an organization improves attraction and retention of employees under ethical and responsible working environment. Likewise, leadership failure leads to increased employee turnover and compromise of an organization’s attractiveness to new employees.
Discuss how your human resource topic benefits employees within a corporate organization
As a relational activity, leadership influences organizational culture, which in turn influences employees performance and more so their job satisfaction. In particular, leadership involves management of a cultural boundary within which an organization operates in terms of staff relations, communication protocol, and job performance. Furthermore, leaders have the leverage to alter cultural dimension of an organization to address employees’ dissatisfaction contributed by performance in a “strait-jacket” kind of organizational environment. In particular, a relational kind of leadership espoused in trait leadership theory fosters employees empowerment, ambidexterity, engagement, organizational agility, and innovation under a more personalized and cooperative relationship between managers and employees.
Apply your topic to an actual real event in a corporate organization
In his book “Leaders Eat Last”, Sinek (2014) observes that leadership is more than leading a group of subordinates or staff. Instead, leadership further entails cultivating an empathetic relationship with colleagues or junior staff. According to Sinek (2014), a leader should always regard his fellow employees as the most trustworthy companion and stand up for them. He counsels the leader to take the first bullet rather than put the life of subordinates in danger. Sinet gives an example of a terror attack in Kenya, whereby a mother is filmed lying on top of her helpless child to shield her from the militants.
Sinet (2014) gives another example of the importance of integrity as one of the traits of a good leader. The story narrates Sinet experience during a visit to Quantico Marine Base whereby a colonel fires a marine because of taking a brief nap on the course of his duty. Sinet confronted the colonel for the firing, which he considered as too punitive for such a minor offense. According to the colonel, he based his decision to fire the marine not because of the sleeping on job infraction, but because of his dishonesty to admit or take responsibility for committing the offense. The incident demonstrates the importance of accountability and discipline in leadership practice.
A similar study by Robert Half Management Resources of fourteen hundred CFOs in randomly sampled United States companies with at least 20 workers established that integrity ranked as the key trait valued by corporate leaders whereby 75% of workers and 46% of CFOs identified integrity as the most valued leadership trait. On the contrary, competitiveness ranked lowest in term of value among the leadership traits evaluated whereby just ten-percent of employees valued competitiveness as topmost leadership attributes. According to Robert Half Management Resources executive director, Tim Hird leaders who demonstrate integrity and show compassion to people maximize their staff’s contributions and cultivate organization’s goodwill. Integrity further helps in team management, and also drive business through attraction of customers, potential employees and customers.
Discuss any training and development that might be necessary for your chosen topic to be effective?
Success of recruiting charismatic leaders depends on the nature and quality of the leadership training and development program, characteristics of individual learners and the availability of opportunities to exercise the new leadership skills and get feedback. There are several types of leadership training programs, including 360-degree feedback, self-directed learning, formal training, and coaching. In particular, leadership development encompasses all activities that improve individuals’ capability to take up leadership responsibilities and tasks. The most prominent leadership development models include the General Electric Model and the McCauley, Van Veslor and Ruderman model.
Formal training of leaders entails traditional leadership training for skills and knowledge required in a given field through practice, feedback, coursework, and rehearsals over-learning. On the other hand, developmental job assignment entails the assignment of formally trained leaders for developmental tasks targeting the newly trained skills. A developmental job allows leaders to go through personal transformation, learn, and acquire leadership skills impacted by responsibilities, roles, and tasks employed in that particular job. Developmental jobs roles offer the most successful program for development of leaders. In particular, development assignment or stretch test the new skills of the leader and further pushes him/her from his/her comfort zone to work in an increasingly multifaceted setting with a new set of problems, factors and dilemmas to tackle.
360-degree feedback model helps leaders to capitalize on learning opportunities in the course of their current duties. It systematically gives leaders' perceptions about their work performance from a holistic circle of opinions drawn from peers, leaders ’ personal assessment, subordinates, and superiors. On the other hand coaching focuses on improvement of the leader’s competence alongside that of organization and team. Coaching encompasses intense, personal relationship targeted at mentoring key lessons through test, assessment and support. Lastly, self-directed learning is whereby individual leaders personally learn new skills through selection of development fields, learning methods and identification of learning resources. Self-directed learning helps leaders to acquire new skills at their own pace and a wide perspective on the responsibilities of leadership as what is required for a leader to succeed.
References
ASTM International. (1996). Standard Practice for Conducting an Interlaboratory Study ... Retrieved July 5, 2019, from https://www.astm.org/Standards/E691.htm
Barling, J., Slater, F., & Kelloway, E. K. (2000). Transformational leadership and emotional intelligence: An exploratory study. Leadership & Organization Development Journal,21 (3), 157-161.
Bono, J. E., Ilies, R., & Gerhardt, M. W. (2002). Personality and leadership: A qualitative and quantitative review. Journal of Applied Psychology,87 (4), 765-780.
Mann, R. D. (1959). A review of the relationships between personality and performance in small groups. Psychological Bulletin,56 (4), 241-270.
Robert Half. (2018, July 23). Which Leadership Trait Rises to the Top? Integrity. Retrieved July 04, 2019, from https://www.roberthalf.com/blog/salaries-and-skills/which-leadership-trait-rises-to-the-top-integrity
Siegling, A., Nielsen, C., & Petrides, K. (2014). Trait emotional intelligence and leadership in a European multinational company. Personality and Individual Differences,65 , 65-68.
Sinek, S. (2014). Leaders eat last . Place of publication not identified: Portfolio Penguin.
Stogdill, R. M. (1948). Personal Factors Associated with Leadership: A Survey of the Literature. The Journal of Psychology,25 (1), 35-71.
Toor, S., & Ofori, G. (2009). Ethical Leadership: Examining the Relationships with Full Range Leadership Model, Employee Outcomes, and Organizational Culture. Journal of Business Ethics,90 (4), 533-547.
