Introduction
Leadership trait theories are a group of leadership theories that focus on the traits and behaviors that successful leaders possess. These leadership traits and behaviors are argued to define the success of a leader. Leadership trait theories are divided into two groups – Great Man theories and Trait theories. Great person theories according to (1993) focuses on past heroes, leaders or successful individuals. Trait theories focus on certain leadership traits. For example, (1974) concluded that leaders have a strong drive for responsibility and task completion; are adventurous and original; exercise initiative in social situations; have self-confidence; accept consequences of decisions and actions; can influence behavior; tolerate stress, frustration, and delay; and structure social situations to the issues at hand. In a comprehensive review of leadership traits conducted by (1981), three groups of traits were listed as being contributors to leadership effectiveness – intelligence (such as judgment, knowledge, decisiveness); personality (adaptability, alertness, creativity, personal integrity, self-confidence, emotional control, independence; and abilities (cooperativeness, popularity, sociability, social participation, tact). These traits are believed to be possessed by a leader in order for them to succeed.
This paper follows the philosophy of leadership trait theories. The focus of the paper is on the role of leadership traits on effective leadership performance.
Research Questions
The research aims to answer the question – What is the role of leadership traits in effective leadership performance? More specifically the research aims to answer the following questions:
1. What are the leadership traits that successful leaders posses?
2. How do leadership traits affect the performance of leaders?
3. How do leadership traits affect the leader’s relationships with other people in the organization?
Research Objectives
The main objective of the research is to determine the role of leadership traits in effective leadership performance. The paper also aims to fulfill the following missions:
1. Identify the leadership traits that successful leaders posses.
2. Determine how leadership traits affect the performance of leaders.
3. Investigate on the effect of leadership traits on the leader’s relationships with other people in the organization.
Research Method
The research method that will be employed are qualitative and qualitative in the form of self-reports and ratings of others. According to (1998) a qualitative research involves an interpretative, naturalistic approach of the subject matter. Qualitative research is about studying things in their natural settings. This is one of the reasons that the researcher preferred the quantitative methodology over the qualitative because through this methodology it was possible to quantify both the samples (experimental sample- the student-teachers and the control sample- students of other professions) and measure the data for analysis. Quantitative studies are studies in which the data can be analyzed using conventional statistical methods (2001). Researchers who take a quantitative approach often work within positivism, as this paradigm frames the world as a collection of apparently independent phenomena to be counted, measured and otherwise catalogued as the prelude to deducing the rules or laws underlying them and giving them coherence (2001).
There is considerable research showing agreement between personality self-reports and the ratings of others ( 1987; 1993; 1989;2002) and some research to show that others’ ratings of personality predict behavioral criteria better than self-reports.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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