The document summarizes three studies that examine the relationship between personality and leadership effectiveness. All three studies found that conscientiousness was the most significant predictor of leadership success. Specifically, leaders who were organized, dependable and achievement-oriented tended to be more effective. While the studies looked at different variables, they consistently showed that personality, especially conscientiousness, plays an important role in leadership. This has implications for human resource managers in selecting candidates for leadership positions.

1. Personality and Leadership Effectiveness
Corbin Ploessl
Student ID: 00706256
Strategic Human Resource Management
Professor Mount
November 25, 2014

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Abstract
Withleadershipbeingahighlydebatedanddiscussedtopic,thisresearchbrief deals
specificallywithuncoveringthe methodsand findingsof three scholarlystudiesthatexamine
the relationshipbetweenpersonalityandleadereffectiveness.As readerswill findout, there are
certainpersonalitytraitsthatmaybe valuable forHR Managersto considerwhenfilling
leadershippositions. Forinstance,conscientiousnesstendstobe the mostsignificantpredictor
of successful leaders,andwe take afurtherlookat thisideawithinthe researchbrief.More
importantly, all of thisinformationhasbeenbrokendownandrelatedbacktoHRM.

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While there are numerousfactorsthatcontribute tothe successof an organization,
there isone characteristicthat almostall successful organizations have incommon – an
effectiveleader. Withthissignificantrelianceonleadership,itiscritical forhumanresource
managersto ensure thatthe rightpeople are inthe right positions.More specifically, they are
the onesthat mustdetermine whetheracandidate hasthe experience,abilities,and
characteristicsthatrelate toeach givenrole.As researchershave exploreddifferentareasthat
appearto influence leadershipeffectiveness,personality happenstobe a reoccurring topicof
interest. Inexaminingthe findingsof three separate scholarlystudies, theyall pointoutthat
certainpersonality traitsdoindeedcorrelate witheffective leadership.Bytakinga furtherlook
intoeach of these articles, itwill be more evident asto justhow personality relatesto
leadershipandorganizational effectiveness.
In the firststudy,researcherswere provideddatabyCEOs,vice presidents,and
membersof topmanagementteams(TMT) from96 UnitedStatescreditunions.Inaddition,
indicatorsof organizational performance were obtainedfromthe National CreditUnion
Administration.Fourmonthsfollowingthe initial collectionof data,CEOsand TMT members
were surveyedinregardstotheirownpersonalitytraits,andTMT membersalsoprovided
ratingsbasedon the leadershipof theirCEO.Organizational performancewastakeninto
account approximatelyone yearafterthe surveyswere firstadministered. Unlike priorstudies,
Colbert,Barrick,andBradley(2014) investigatedastowhetherTMT leadershipandpersonality
are correlatedwiththe effectivenessof anorganizationbeyondthe effectsof CEOleadership
and personality.
The Big Five personalitytraitsof the respondentsof the surveyswere measured and
assessedwith96 itemsfromthe Personal CharacteristicsInventory,asproposedbyMount,
Barrick,Laffitte,andCallans (ascitedinColbert etal.,2014). Additionally,researchersexamined

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the transformational leadershipforthe CEOand eachmemberof the TMT using20 itemsfrom
Bass and Avolio’sMultifactorLeadershipQuestionnaire (ascitedinColbertetal.,2014). By
combiningthese twomethodswiththe assessmentof the organizational performance,
researcherswere able totesttheirhypothesesandcompare theirfindingswithexistingdata.
Accordingto the resultsof Colbert,Barrick,andBradley’sstudy(2014),“TMT mean
conscientiousnessandCEOconscientiousnesswere directlyandsignificantlyrelatedto
organizational performance.” Thisinformationgoeshandinhandwithanotherstudythatwas
conductedbyBarrick et al., whentheyfoundthat conscientiousnesstendstoinfluence work
motivation(ascited inColbertetal.,2014); andincreasedmotivationtypicallyleadstohigher
performance.Inotherwords,thisstudy furtherdemonstratesthatconscientiousnessisa
prominentpredictorof bothTMT and organizational performance.Anadditionalfindingalso
showedthatas the CEO portrayedhigherlevelsof transformational leadership,organizational
performance alsotendedtobe higher. Ingeneral,the researcherswere abletoreveal
meaningful supportthatbothleadershipandpersonalityare importantcomponentsof TMT
members.
In the article, Personalityand LeaderEffectiveness:A Moderated Mediation Modelof
Leadership Self-Efficacy,Job Demands,and Job Autonomy,Ng,Ang,andChan(2008) examined
howleadershipself-efficacy(LSE) playsamediatingrole inlinkingneuroticism, extraversion,and
conscientiousnesswithleadereffectiveness. Inaddition,theyalsoinvestigatedhow job
demandsandautonomyplaythe moderatingrole ininfluencingthismediation. Ng, Ang,and
Chan’sstudywas conductedusingmilitaryrecruitsfromthe Singapore Ministryof Defense.As
the researcherscollecteddatafrom394 participantsintwosurveysthatwere administeredtwo
yearsapart, theyassessedthe BigFive personalitytraits,c,LSE,jobdemands,jobautonomy,
and leadershipexperience.The recruitswere giventhe firstsurveywithinthe firsttwoweeks of

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enlisting,andthe secondsurveywas conductednearthe conclusionof theirmilitaryservice
period.Directsupervisorsof these recruitswere alsoaskedtoassesseachrecruit’sleadership
effectivenessatthistime.
In evaluatingthe personality traitsof the participants,Ng etal.(2008) referredto
Goldberg’sInternational PersonalityItemPool (IPIP),which isatool designedtomeasure the
five-factormodel.Additionally,the researchersused otherspecificmeasuresinordertoassess
LSE, jobdemands,jobautonomy,andleadereffectiveness. Byexaminingthe resultsof their
findings,Ngetal. (2008) were able toshow that neuroticism, extraversion,and
conscientiousnesswere all significantlyrelatedtoleadereffectiveness.Further, the study
“empiricallyvalidated LSEas a proximal andspecificmotivational mechanismthataccountsfor
the relationshipsbetweenthe broadtraitsof neuroticism, extraversion,andconscientiousness
withleadershipeffectiveness.” Whileitisclearthatthere are several factorsthatmay
potentiallyinfluence the effectivenessof aleader,we cancontinue torecognize thatpersonality
doesindeedplayasignificantrole.
Similartothe firsttwo articles,DeRue,Humphrey,Nahrgang,andWellman(2011) dig
deeperintothe topicof leadershipandthe factorsthat contribute toitseffectiveness. Indoing
so,the authorscombinedpreviouslypublishedmeta-analyticestimateswiththeirownmeta-
analysesof primary studies.Withintheirfinalanalysis,the authorshadincorporated59
differentstudiesthatconsistedof 46 primarystudiesand13 existingmeta-analyses.Inorderto
be includedinthe analysis,itwasnecessarythatthe studywasa meta-analysis,containeda
variable thatrelatedtotheirhypotheses,anditmusthave acknowledgedthe effectsize forthe
bivariate relationship.Followingthe collectionandevaluationof the data,the researchers
reportedfindingsthatare consistentwiththe previousstudies.

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“For group performance,ataskperformance dimensionof leadershipeffectiveness,the
mostimportantpredictorisConscientiousness, whichispositivelyrelatedtogroupperformance
and accountsfor 61.5% of the total explainedR2
,”accordingtoDeRue etal. (2011). That
percentage isroughlythree timesthatof agreeableness,whichisthe secondmostsignificant
predictor.Inaddition,the authors alsopointoutthatconscientiousnessandextraversionare
the most importanttraitsof a leaderwhenitcomesto overall leadereffectiveness.Asaresult,
the authors concludedthatconscientiousnesswas“the mostconsistenttraitpredictorof
leadershipeffectiveness.”
As mentionedabove,thereappearstobe consistencyamongthe three scholarly
studies,especiallyinregardstothe valuedimportance of conscientiousness. DeRue etal.(2011)
state that, “conscientiousnessreflectsthe extenttowhichapersonisdependable,dutiful,and
achievement-oriented,andisoftenassociatedwithdeliberate planningandstructure.”Within
the featuredarticles,conscientiousnesstendstobe the one traitthat is mostcommonly
associatedwithleadershipeffectiveness.However, eachof the articlesaccountfordifferent
variablesinrelationtoconscientiousness.Forinstance, Ngetal. (2008) examinedhow
leadershipself-efficacyactsasa mediatorbetweenpersonalitytraitsandleadership
effectiveness.Incontrast, Colbertetal. (2014) lookedatthe associationof topmanagement
teampersonalityandleadershipwithorganizational effectiveness.Whileeachof these studies
may have takena differentapproach, itisstill evidentthatconscientiousness playsasignificant
role ineffective leadership.
Anothertopicof interestthatremainsconstantthroughoutthe three articlesisthe
belief thatenhanced performancemay stemfroma combinationof bothpersonalityand
motivation.AccordingtoBarrickandMount, “the primarymeansthroughwhichpersonality
affectsworkbehaviorisexpectedtobe throughincreasedmotivation,”(ascitedinNget al.,

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2008). Likewise,BarrickandMountalsodiscovered thatgainsinmotivationtendtobe an
underlyingfactorthatassistsconscientiousnessinconsistentlypredictingjobperformance (as
citedinColbertetal.,2014). In relationtoHR, managersshouldstrive torecognize the
importance of maintainingand/orincreasingemployeemotivation.Accordingto Stewartand
Brown(2014), payingemployeesbasedontheirperformance isone waytoenhance motivation.
While we are presentedwithvaluableinformationineachof the three articles,there
are still areasthatfuture researchcouldaddress.Forinstance,inthe studyconductedbyNg, et
al.(2008), theyonlyexaminedthe mediatingrole of LSEina militarysettingthat wascomprised
mostlyof male participants.Itwouldbe interestingtosee whetherornotthese resultsremain
consistentinamore work-orientedenvironment. Inaddition,Iwouldliketosee if takingona
leadershipposition hasanyeffectonan individual’sconscientiousness.More specifically,isit
possible thatconscientiousnessincreaseswhenemployeesplaythe role of aleader?Like witha
majorityof scholarlystudies,thereisalwaysgoingtobe roomfor expansion,sothese are justa
fewpossibilitiesthatcome tomind.
In relatingall of thisinformationbacktoHRM, the moral of these studiessuggeststhat
personalityis definitelyanareathat managementshouldtake intoconsiderationwhenplacing
individualsinleadershippositions.Whileconscientiousnesstendstobe the mostsignificant
predictorof successful leaders,extraversionandagreeablenessare also importanttoleadership
(DeRue etal.,(2011). As there are a numberof factorsthat contribute toleadereffectiveness,it
isimportantthat HR Managers provide employeeswithopportunitiesto improve anddevelop
theirleadershipskills. Traininganddevelopmentalongwithleadershipexperienceswill assistin
buildingapipeline of leadersthatmayfurtherenhance the overall effectivenessof an
organization.

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References
Colbert, A.E.,Barrick, M. R., & Bradley,B.H. (2014). Personalityandleadershipcompositionin
top managementteams:Implicationsfororganizational effectiveness. Personnel
Psychology,67,351-387.
DeRue,S.D., Nahrganag,J.D., Wellman,N.,&Humphrey,S.E. (2011). Trait andbehavioral
theoriesof leadership:Anintegrationandmeta-analytictestof theirrelativevalidity.
PersonnelPsychology,64,7-52.
Ng,K., Ang,S., & Chan,K. (2008). Personalityandleadereffectiveness:A moderatedmediation
model of leadershipself-efficacy,jobdemands,andjobautonomy. Journalof Applied
Psychology,93,733-743.
Stewart,G.,& Brown,K.(2014). Human ResourceManagement:Linking Strategy to Practice (3rd
ed.).Hoboken:JohnWiley&Sons,Inc.