Development and Revelation of Leadership Trait Theory
Yu-fang Chao 1, Xue-fei Chang2
1
2
School of Business, Shandong Polytechnic University, Jinan, China
School of Business, Shandong Polytechnic University, Jinan, China
(chaochuwen@sina.com, changlji@163.com)
Abstract - This article summarizes recent developments
of leadership trait theory, explaining, in detail, the content
and characteristics of charismatic leadership theory, implicit
leadership theory, effective leadership theory, leadership
competency theory and other modern leadership theory. On
this basis, this article points out that shifting of research
paradigm and comprehension of research level, system of
research methods are the key to development and its social
importance. At the same time, development of leadership
trait theory shows that leadership trait theory still has a
large value of theory and application, personality traits can
promote or impede the efforts of leaders’ influence on
others, and leadership traits can be formed and developed
and acquiesced in practice. This is good for our
comprehensive, in-depth understanding of leadership trait
theory, promoting study on leadership trait theory.
Keywords - Leadership trait theory, Charismatic
leadership theory, implicit leadership theory, effectiveness of
leadership, development
I. INTRODUCTION
Leadership is with humans, but it was not until early
in the 1930 of the 20th century, scientific research of
leadership really began. Leadership trait theory is the
earliest branch of the theoretical leadership study. In the
1930 of the 20th century, researchers applied
psychological research methods on the characteristics
study of the leaders, thus forming the leadership trait
theory. Study on the trait theory of leadership during this
period focused on mental, character, knowledge, abilities,
and other characteristics of leaders, whether there is a
difference in essence exists between leaders and
followers, whether a particular personality traits, physical
property, intellectual or personal values will distinguish
followers and leaders.
In 1948, Stodgily conducted a study of relevant
literature, came to the two main conclusions that, first,
there is no essential difference between leaders and
followers in quality; second, some characteristics are very
important which have a link with successful leadership.
These features are ability, achievement, responsibility,
participation, etc. [1, 2] Mann (1959) and Stodgily (1974)
reviewed hundreds of documents, large amounts of
evidence to consolidate the above two conclusions.
Although Stodgily (1948, 1974) and Mann (1959)
have presented sufficient evidence to show that leaders
who have the right traits are more likely to succeed, but
many researchers neglect this, just concerned about this
conclusion "there are no essential differences between
leaders and followers". Thus, they wrongly concluded that
"personal attributes cannot be used to predict the future
leadership success". [3]So the research perspective from
the leadership trait theory was shifted to others, leadership
trait theory was into a low ebb. Until the Lord, DeVader,
Aligner (1986), Hogan, and Curphy (1994) published
seminar articles, leadership personality traits were only
broadly concerned by researchers. Leadership trait theory
after years of development, through a change of research
perspective, created a charm leadership theory,
McClelland's theory of achievement motivation and
leading motivation.
Leadership trait theory after the recent development of
more than 30 years, have gain more and more attention,
system research of development of leadership trait theory
is of great significance for more in-depth understanding
and research and application of this theory.
II. METHODOLOGY
Since the leadership science as an independent
discipline, the trait theory of leadership research has been
ongoing, forming rich literature. This study has laid a
good foundation. We can analyze the choroid about the
trait theory of leadership development from a large
number of literatures of the leadership trait theory, and
can obtain its development law.
So, this article took literature research as the main
research methods, through analysis of the development of
leadership trait theory in the last 30 years, summarized
research conclusions of leadership each trait theory, then
made a comprehensive analysis, exploring development
and success of modern trait theory of leadership.
III. DEVELOPMENT LEADERSHIP TRAIT THEORY
A. Effective Leadership Theory
Lord (1986) and some others, by a more complex
method called meta-analysis, assessed Mann's earlier
discovery again, finding that intelligence, courage and
personal perception are significantly related with each
others, that personality traits can be cross-context for
leaders and non-leaders.[4] Meanwhile, researches of
Similarly. A. Kirkpatrick and Edwin.A.Locke show that a
series of personal qualities endow individuals with
"correct qualification", which make them to be a
competent leader, effective leaders are clearly distinct
from other types of people in several key areas. [5]These
qualities are "prerequisite" for a people becoming leaders.
In their view, key qualities which make differences
between leader and ordinary people are driving force,
honesty, integrity, self-confidence, coordination skills and
business knowledge. At the same time, according to their
view, these characteristics can be a person born, or it can
be learned, or both. Richard L.Hughes, Robert C.Ginnett,
Gordon j. Curphy, stated that: the strength of the
relationship between personality traits and leadership
effectiveness is often negatively associated with the
relative strength of context. Changes in most
organizations are accelerating today; leaders may face
more unfamiliar and ambiguous situations. For this
reason, personality traits of a leader will be playing an
increasingly important role.
For the effective leadership traits, Yukl (1994), Hoy
and Miskel (1996) presented a model of effective
leadership traits consisting of personality traits, motive
traits and skill traits, its content is shown table 1.[6]
William Jack Baumol produced ten conditions, enterprise
leaders should have according to practical situation of
United States corporate; the United States Management
Association found that successful managers usually have
20 kinds of qualities and abilities: Japanese business
community also made that effective leaders should have
ten virtues and ten talents.
TABLE I
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP TRAITS
personality traits
1. Confident
2.Under pressure
3.Emotional
maturity
motivation traits
1. Working and
interpersonal needs
2.Power and
achievement
motivation
3. highly anticipated
on the success
4. Integrity
skill traits
1. Technical
capability
2. Interpersonal
skills
3.Thinking ability
4.Administrative
ability
(Sources: internet)
In china, “World Executive Digest" organized the
customer of “the World Executive”, Chinese business
leaders and management experts to select leadership trait
of Chinese business leaders in 2002. The ten major
leadership traits are: the information decision; the
allocation of resources; the effective communication; and
inspire others; the personnel training; the responsibility;
and being honest and trustworthy; of career orientation
with fast learning. [7]
B. Charismatic Leadership Theory
Charismatic Leadership Theory is a kind of leadership
theory under which a leader makes use of his own charm
to encourage followers made a major organizational
change. House (1976) indicated that charismatic leaders
have three personal characteristics; that is, the high degree
of confidence, power and belief in their own firm.
W.Bennis (1984) found four characteristics; that is,
vision, clearly clarifying the goals and ideals for
subordinate and identity by subordinate; consistent and
persistent pursuit of the ideal, knowing their own strength
and making good use of that power.[8] J. Congere and
others (1988) studies suggest that charismatic leaders
have an ideal objectives; focus and dedication;
unconventional and very assertive belief; being major
agents of change rather than the traditional apologist of
the status quo. They think that there are seven key
characteristics which distinguish charismatic leadership
and non-charismatic leadership.
C. Implicit Leadership Theory
Eden introduced the concept of implicit leadership in
1975, thought that the inner factors of leaders has a
tremendous impact on assessment of leader's behavior,
that is the trait or behavior expectations and beliefs owned
by individual leaders are "labels" which distinguish the
individual leaders and non-leaders. Offermen and others
(1986) studied the content and structure implicit
leadership model of United States, and in 1994 produced
eight factors as sensitivity, dedication, authoritarianism,
charismatic, intellectual, attractive, masculine, and
temperament. Leading prototype research by Pavitt and
Sackaroff (1990) summarized 8 typical behaviors and 8
typical characteristic and found out that the typical
characteristics and typical behaviors can better distinguish
good leaders and bad leaders. After Offermen, Epitropaki
and Martin (2004) adopted Offermen’s 41-quality table to
further explore the content and structure of the implicit
leadership of United States, the results suggest that both
have good fitting, eventually forming the 6 dimension,
which contains 21 characteristics of implicit leadershipquality table. [9]Test results after one year showed that, the
model has sustainability and stability across age, position
and cross-service life.
For influencing factors of implicit leadership, Stark
(1992) pointed out that the characteristics of parents play
a key role on children at implicit leadership; parents give
their children first social experiences including
expectations of future, which may affect their children on
the formation of the concept of authority. Individual
personality traits have important implications implicit
leadership theory, Offermann’s (1994) type of implicit
leadership theory and the "big five" personality traits have
significant common.
D. Achievement Motivation and Leadership-motivation
Theory
David c. McClelland Professor of psychology, at
Harvard University in 1949 produced the concept of three
social motives, that is, achievement motivation
(Achievement), affiliation motivation (Affiliation) and
power motivation (Power). [10]After a long period of
research, McClelland discovered excellent leader ideal
types of social motivation, high power motivation,
appropriate achievement motivation, of the relatively low
level of affinity motivation. High achievement motivation
of leaders may harm the development of the organization.
At the same time, McClelland stated that although
motives are relatively stable personal characteristics, but
in some cases can also be changed. McClelland in 1965
published “Toward a theory of motive acquisition”, how
to enhance motivation is summarized in four steps.
Motivation leadership was stated by Chan.K.Y in
1999, and he defined leading motivation as: the inherent
the level of effort and perseverance that individual leaders
would pay to be a prominent individual and the will that
the would-be leaders decide whether to attend relevant
training, take on roles and responsibilities.[11] The theory
is that: the leadership motivation level and leadership
behaviors are closely related, under the combined action
of individual cognitive factors and non-cognitive factors,
individuals with high leading motivation are more likely
to be a good leader. Chan considers non-cognitive skills
such as personality, values, and sense of self-efficacy on
the basis will influence leaders’ behaviors through
leadership motivation, and leaders’ behaviors, in turn, will
affect the leadership role for the individuals involved in
leadership activities. Zaccaro and others (2004) in the
1990 – 2003, in empirical summary of the leadership
characteristics, said that results from Chan and Drasgow
make you feel that there is hope and it deserved further
study.
E. Leadership Competency Theory
In the 1970 of the 20th century, competency theory
was proposed and practical application of the theory of
competency theory is growing, many scholars also carried
out research on leadership competency. As for the
connotation of the leadership competencies, it is generally
considered as the potential characteristics of leaders,
including motivation, characteristics, sense of self, values,
knowledge, and so 5 levels. [12]
The most prominent parts of leadership competency
theory are its application in practice. At present, many
companies, which had greater influence on business in the
world, had developed leadership competency models, and
use it for leadership development and training of
personnel. Motorola, United States Bank, GE, IBM,
Lufthansa Airlines, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Royal Dutch Shell
and Canada Royal Bank Financial Group had developed a
leadership competency model. Many well-known
enterprises in China also attaches great importance to
development and application of leadership competency
model, Huawei, Lenovo, Haier, China Resources group,
also started to develop leadership competence model and
applied it to the leadership development in the
Organization.
In addition, the global famous management
consultancy Hay company (2008) after 2 years of time,
established the first "Excellence quality model for
business leaders of China", and on the basis had launched
the plan of "future stars of excellence cultivating business
leaders in China". At the same time, with the application
of competency theory, there was born a number of
research institutions in China, such as NorthForest
consulting
(www.beisen.com),
BDZH,
HeBang
(www.hebangchina.com), driver management consulting
(www.DriveTop.com.CN), they all promote development
of leadership competency.
World renowned consulting firm Gallup put great
emphasis on the important role of the leader in the
development of modern enterprises and its core concept is
" competence + skill", that the core of advantage is
competence, competences are persistent patterns of
thinking,
feeling
and
behavior
demonstrated
spontaneously by the personal that would make benefit.
The competence and leadership, which Gallup stressed,
are same theory of leadership traits. Gallup believes that
talents have 4 dimensions, 34 themes.
IV. INSPIRATION FROM THE DEVELOPMENT OF
LEADERSHIO TRAIT THEORY
Throughout the history of the development of
leadership traits, the reasons why leadership trait theory
had been in low ebb, one important reason was that we
were just concerned about this conclusion "there are no
essential differences between leaders and followers",
while neglecting this conclusion that "there is a link
between certain traits and leadership success ".[13] We
found that in practice leadership training alone does not
bring about effective leadership, leadership traits plays an
important role in the development of leadership. [14] The
wide application of leadership trait theory verifies its
rationality, science and value. Therefore, that, the studies
of leadership trait theory in the 1980 of the 20th century
get people's attention, is taken for granted again; it is a
rational regression of leadership theory.
Second, the development of leadership trait theory
shows that points of view, "personal traits cannot be used
to predict the future leadership success", "trait theory is
not an effective method of training development" is onesided. Now the more consistent view is that personality
traits can promote or impede the efforts of leaders’
influence others, various scenarios and characteristic of
the followers will also have an impact on the leader's
personality. [15] Practices of leadership trait theory show
that the leadership trait can predict leadership
effectiveness. Practices of Microsoft, Motorola, Gallup,
Huawei, Hay and many other companies show that this
theory did play a role in the development of leadership
qualities and the prediction of performance of it.
Application of leadership traits in a large number of
organizations actually broke the conclusions that the
leadership traits cannot predict performance, of course,
this prediction of performance takes place in a particular
organization, with the scene (Organization) variables, and
leadership trait has the ability to predict performance. At
the same time, if the leadership was regarded as a
dynamic process, to be analyzed from a developing
perspective, then, it is not impossible for successful
leadership trait to be learned, but it can be formed and
developed in practice of leadership.
Again, the development of leadership trait theory is
inseparable with the awareness of leaders. In the first
study of relevant leadership, leadership was viewed as
leaders. Over the past twenty or thirty years of
development, concept leadership undertook greater
progress, from the leader to interactive process of leaders,
context and followers.[16] The development of leader
concept laid a foundation for the paradigm shift of
leadership trait theory. Leadership trait theory paradigm
has evolved from simple studies of leader traits, into
system study of leaders, context and followers.
Leadership trait theory development also demonstrated
the development law of leadership theory research from
the simple to the complex, from the fragment to the
system. On this basis, leadership trait theory broke
through the leader's personal research and was developed
into a comprehensive research on multiple levels. Shift of
research paradigm made people once again recognize the
value of leadership trait theory, leadership trait theory had
gained a new vitality, there came charismatic leadership
theory, implicit leadership theory, effective leadership
theory, leadership competency theory.
Finally, although the leadership trait theory has gained
greater progress in nearly 30 years, but it must be noted
that leadership trait theory also needs further integration.
Leadership study has hundreds of years of history;
leadership theory research already has a lot of
accumulation. However, the subject is far from being
mature and perfect. Researchers and practitioners don’t
have consistent view on important issues such as the
essence of leadership and effective leadership; on the
other hand there were many fields to which we have not
answered. As for leadership trait theory, in order to get
further development, it must effectively integrated the
existing theoretical research results, forming a more
theoretical framework of norms, to lay the foundations for
the next study.
V. CONCLUSION
Scientific research of leadership has a short history in
China, has a history of more than 30 years only. As the
leading resources is increasingly becoming a critical
resource and an irreplaceable resource for social
development, scientific research has grown quickly, also
achieved more success.
How to correctly and systematically treat the
development of leading scientific theory is not only a very
concerned academic issue, but a problem that had plagued
Western for a long time. This article do hope that by
recalling the trait theory of leadership development and
making comprehensive introduction, we can have a
comprehensive understanding of it and generate a certain
amount of inspiration and lessons for effective application
and innovation of leadership theory in China.
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