Traits Approach Theory
The quest to find a set of characteristics shared by leaders is what we call the Leadership Traits approach. “The trait approach was one of the first systematic attemps to study leadership”, according to Peter Northouse (2004).
A large number of leadership studies were conducted through all the 20th century trying to establish the leader’s most important traits. In other words, all these leadership studies focused their attention on finding a set of personal characteristics that define a great leader.
Development of the Leadership Studies on Traits
The first half of the 20th century saw the appearance of the so-called “Great Man Theories”, they’re called this way because of the argued qualities that leaders should have to be great politicians, religious leader, or army leader.
These theories were challenged by Dr. Ralph Melvin Stogdill in 1948 when he stated that “A person does not become a leader by virtue of the possession of some combination of traits” in his famous survey about the studies of the first half of the century (Stogdill, 1948). For this particular study Stogdill analyzed more than 124 leadership studies starting from 1904.
Later on, in a second review in 1974, Stogdill analyzed 163 studies that were conducted between 1948 and 1970. While in the first review Stogdill put his attention on situational factors and not in personal traits. In his second review he was more balanced to assign importance also to the leader’s traits. As a matter of fact, it “validated the original trait idea that the leader’s characteristics are indeed a part of Leadership” (Northouse, 2004).
Going back to 1959, Richard D. Mann analyzed more than 1400 findings regarding personality and performance in small groups, expressing based on that study that leaders exhibit the following traits: Intelligence, masculinity, dominance, adjustment, extroversion, and conservatism. Later on, in 1986 a group led by Robert G. Lord, took another view to Mann’s observations and determined that the first 3 characteristics recently named, are related to the way people perceives leaders.
Just like these examples, you can find a lot more of leadership qualities and traits identified by the theorists. One interesting point here is that traits tend to vary from author to author.
The next chart is a brief list of traits of some researchers:
| Stogdill(1948) | Intelligence, Alertness, Insight, Responsibility, Iniative, Persistence, Self Confidence, Sociability |
| Mann (1959) | Intelligence, Masculinity, Dominance, Adjustment, Extroversion, Conservatism |
| Stogdill(1974) | Achievement, Persistence, Insight, Iniiative, Self-confidence, Responsibility, Cooperativeness, tolerance, Influence, Sociability |
| Lord, DeVader, and Alliger (1986) |
Intelligence, Masculinity, Dominance |
| Kouzes & Posner(1993)* | Honest, Forward Looking, Competent, Inspiring, Intelligent, Fair Minded, Broad-minded, Supportive, Straighforward, dependable |
You can see clearly that every researcher has its own set of traits that define a leader. Thus, it’s evident that the set of traits is as diverse as the researchers that supposedly “found them”.
Pages: 1 2
Latest News About Leadership
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 11:08:43 -0800
Tony Abbott is preparing for a ?leadership showdown?? Is someone challenging him for leadership of the Liberal Party? Or is he switching to the ALP and challenging Gillard for leadership of the ALP?
Windsor warns Labor over leadership talk
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:12:10 -0800
Cross-benchers and the Greens say Labor risks government if leadership speculation continues.
Swan Backs Gillard Over Possible Australian Leadership Challenge
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:58:28 -0800
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has the backing of her Labor Party caucus, according to Treasurer Wayne Swan, amid speculation that Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd is considering a leadership challenge.
Leadership on agenda
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:53:05 -0800
JULIA Gillard will try to quell bubbling discontent about Labor leadership at today's caucus brainstorming session.
Forbes Leadership Highlights of the Week: Set for Super Sunday
Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:47:46 -0800
With the biggest sports event of the year upon us this week, Karl Moore drew leadership inspiration from both Tom Brady and Eli Manning with "Know Your Teammates: Leadership Lessons from the Super Bowl Quarterbacks." Lisa Arthur looked beyond both those stars with her "Super Bowl MVP Prediction: No, Not Brady or Manning. It's Social Media." Dov Seidman let us know who?also neither Brady nor ...
2 comments
[...] It’s recognized to be the first systematic attemp to study leadership from a scientific point of view. In simple terms, the trait approach tried to identify the qualities and characteristics of great political, religious and army leaders. The goal was to find a set of traits that defined the great leaders. The studies that tried to find such traits are also referred as the Great Man theories. A key fact of these studies is that they concentrated all the efforts watching the “leader”, without taking into account, the context or the followers. (Want to learn more?, check The Traits Approach) [...]
[...] everyone develops their own opinions of leadership traits, characteristics, and qualities. The leadership trait approach says that leaders are born with specific traits necessary for effective leadership. Traits are [...]
Leave a Comment