30
2
Leadership Traits
and Ethics
Chapter Outline
Personality Traits and Leadership
Personality and Traits
The Big Five Model of Personality
Personality Profiles
Traits of Effective Leaders
Dominance
High Energy
Self-Confidence
Locus of Control
Stability
Integrity
Intelligence
Flexibility
Sensitivity to Others
The Personality Profile
of Effective Leaders
Achievement Motivation Theory
Leader Motive Profile Theory
Leadership Attitudes
Theory X and Theory Y
The Pygmalion Effect
Self-Concept
How Attitudes Develop
Leadership Styles
Ethical Leadership
Does Ethical Behavior Pay?
How Personality Traits and Attitudes,
Moral Development, and the
Situation Affect Ethical Behavior
How People Justify
Unethical Behavior
Simple Guides to Ethical Behavior
Stakeholder Approach to Ethics
Being an Ethical Leader
Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1. List the benefits of classifying personality traits. p. 33
2. Describe the Big Five personality dimensions. p. 33
3. Explain the universality of traits of effective leaders. p. 37
4. Discuss why the trait of dominance is so important for managers to have. p. 37
5. State how the Achievement Motivation Theory and the Leader Motive Profile
are related and different. p. 42
6. Identify similarities and differences among Theory X and Theory Y, the
Pygmalion effect, and self-concept. p. 48
7. Describe how attitudes are used to develop four leadership styles. p. 52
8. Compare the three levels of moral development. p. 54
9. Explain the stakeholder approach to ethics. p. 58
10. Define the following key terms (in order of appearance in the chapter):
traits
personality
Big Five Model of Personality
surgency personality dimension
agreeableness personality
dimension
adjustment personality dimension
conscientiousness personality
dimension
openness-to-experience
personality dimension
personality profiles
self-awareness
social awareness
self-management
relationship management
Achievement Motivation Theory
Leader Motive Profile Theory
Leader Motive Profile (LMP)
attitudes
Theory X and Theory Y
Chapter 2 Leadership Traits and Ethics 31
Opening Case APPLICATION
In this opening case we feature a highly successful
African-American woman who founded a nonprofit orga-
nization to develop leadership skills in public schools.
Lorraine Monroe was the principal of Harlem’s
Frederick Douglass Academy from 1991 to 1997. When
Monroe started the new high school, the goal was to
create a special college preparatory high school. The
prior school was well known for its violence, its poor
attendance, and its persistently low level of academic
achievement. Within five years, student test scores
ranked among New York City’s best, and 96 percent of
the school’s graduates went on to college. How did she
turn an inner-city school around? Through great lead-
ership. Monroe restored order and discipline primarily
through her “Twelve Non-Negotiable Rules,” which are
based on respect for oneself, for one’s associates, and
for property.
In order to develop school administrators’ leadership
skills, she founded the School Leadership Academy at
the Center for Educational Innovation in 1997. She went
on to found the Lorraine Monroe Leadership Institute
(LMLI) in July 2001. She is its director and continues
to consult to develop leaders. The Mission of LMLI is
to develop and support public school leaders who view
solid education as a necessity for transforming children’s
lives and who are committed to leading consistently
high-achieving schools where all students, beginning
with kindergarten, are prepared to enter and graduate
from college. The Lorraine Monroe Leadership Institute
impacts over 17,000 students in the United States.
The work of Dr. Monroe and the Frederick Douglass
Academy has been featured on 60 Minutes,
Tony Brown’s
Journal
, and
The McCreary Report
; in
Ebony Magazine
,
The New York Times
,
Reader’s Digest
,
Parade Magazine
,
Fast Company Magazine
; and in her book
Nothing’s
Impossible: Leadership Lessons from Inside and Outside
the Classroom.
1
Opening Case Questions:
1. What Big Five personality traits does Lorraine
Monroe possess?
2. Which traits of effective leaders does Lorraine
Monroe possess?
3. Does Lorraine Monroe have the personality profile
of an effective leader? And what does she say in
response to businesspeople who continually ask
her, “What makes a good leader”?
4. How did “attitude” help change the performance of
Frederick Douglass Academy?
5. How did Lorraine Monroe’s self-concept affect her
leadership?
6. What role did ethics play in changing the perfor-
mance of Frederick Douglass Academy?
Can you answer any of these questions? You’ll find
answers to these questions and learn more about LMLI
and its leadership throughout the chapter.
To learn more about Lorraine Monroe and LMLI, visit
LMLI’s Web site at http://www.lorrainemonroe.com.
L
orraine Monroe is a strong, entrepreneurial leader. The focus of this chap-
ter is on leadership traits, which includes ethics. We begin by learning about
personality traits of leaders and the personality profile of effective leaders.
Next we learn how attitudes affect leadership. We end with a discussion of
ethics in leadership.
Pygmalion effect
self-concept
ethics
moral justification
displacement of responsibility
diffusion of responsibility
advantageous comparison
disregard or distortion of
consequences
attribution of blame
euphemistic labeling
stakeholder approach to ethics
32 Part 1 Individuals as Leaders
Personality Traits and Leadership
Recall that trait theory of leadership was the foundation for the field of leadership
studies and that trait theory seeks to identify the characteristics effective leaders pos-
sess. Trait researchers examined personality, physical abilities, and social- and work-
related characteristics. Trait theory is still being studied today as empirical research
on leadership has come full circle by re-visiting the original belief that traits play a
role in predicting leadership qualities and identifying potential leaders.2 Substantial
progress in the development of personality theory and traits has been made since
the early 1990s.3 In this section, we discuss traits and personality, the Big Five Model
of Personality, reasons why executives fail, and the traits of effective leaders.
Before you learn about personality traits, complete Self-Assessment 1 to deter–
mine your personality profile. Throughout this chapter, you will gain a better
understanding of your personality traits, which help explain why people do the
things they do (behavior).
SELF-ASSESSMENT 1
There are no right or wrong answers, so be honest
and you will really increase your self-awareness. We
suggest doing this exercise in pencil or making a copy
before you write on it. We will explain why later.
Using the scale below, rate each of the 25 statements
according to how accurately it describes you. Place a
number from 1 to 7 on the line before each statement.
Like me Somewhat like me Not like me
7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1. I step forward and take charge in lead-
erless situations.
2. I am concerned about getting along well
with others.
3. I have good self-control; I don’t get
emotional, angry, or yell.
4. I’m dependable; when I say I will do
something, it’s done well and on time.
5. I try to do things differently to improve
my performance.
6. I enjoy competing and winning; losing
bothers me.
7. I enjoy having lots of friends and going
to parties.
8. I perform well under pressure.
9. I work hard to be successful.
10. I go to new places and enjoy traveling.
11. I am outgoing and willing to confront
people when in conflict.
12. I try to see things from other people’s
points of view.
13. I am an optimistic person who sees the posi-
tive side of situations (the cup is half full).
14. I am a well-organized person.
15. When I go to a new restaurant, I order
foods I haven’t tried.
16. I want to climb the corporate ladder to as
high a level of management as I can.
17. I want other people to like me and to view
me as very friendly.
18. I give people lots of praise and encourage-
ment; I don’t put people down and criticize.
19. I conform by following the rules of an
organization.
20. I volunteer to be the first to learn and do
new tasks at work.
21. I try to influence other people to get my way.
22. I enjoy working with others more than
working alone.
23. I view myself as being relaxed and secure,
rather than nervous and insecure.
24. I am considered to be credible because I do
a good job and come through for people.
25. When people suggest doing things
differently, I support them and help bring it
about; I don’t make statements like these:
it won’t work, we never did it before, no one
else ever did it, or we can’t do it.
Personality Profile
Chapter 2 Leadership Traits and Ethics 33
To determine your personality profile: (1) In
the blanks, place the number from 1 to 7 that
represents your score for each statement. (2) Add
up each column your total should be a number
from 5 to 35. (3) On the number scale, circle the
number that is closest to your total score. Each
column in the chart represents a specific personality
dimension.
(Self-Assessment 1 continued)
List the benefits of classifying personality traits.
Personality and Traits
Why are some people outgoing and others shy, loud and quiet, warm and cold,
aggressive and passive? This list of behaviors is made up of individual traits. Traits
are distinguishing personal characteristics. Personality is a combination of traits that clas-
sifies an individual’s behavior. Personality also influences the decisions we make.4
Understanding people’s personalities is important because personality affects
behavior as well as perceptions and attitudes.5 Knowing personalities helps you to
explain and predict others’ behavior and job performance.6 For a simple example,
if you know a person is very shy, you can better understand why he or she is quiet
when meeting new people. You can also predict that the person will be quiet when
going places and meeting new people. You can also better understand why the per-
son would not seek a job as a salesperson; and if he or she did, you could predict
that the person might not be very successful.
Personality is developed based on genetics and environmental factors. The genes
you received before you were born influence your personality traits. Your family,
friends, school, and work also influence your personality.
Describe the Big Five personality dimensions.
The Big Five Model of Personality
There are many personality classification methods. However, the Big Five Model of
Personality traits is the most widely accepted way to classify personalities because of its
strong research support and its reliability across age, sex, race, and language groups.7
Learning
Outcome 1
Learning
Outcome 2
Surgency
35
30
1. 25
6. 20
11. 15
16. 10
21. 5
Total Scale
Agreeableness
35
30
2. 25
7. 2 0
12. 15
17. 10
22. 5
Total Scale
Adjustment
35
30
3. 25
8. 20
13. 15
18. 10
23. 5
Total Scale
Conscientiousness
35
30
4. 25
9. 20
14. 15
19. 10
24. 5
Total Scale
Openness to
Experience
35
30
5. 25
10. 20
15. 15
20. 10
25. 5
Total Scale
The higher the total number, the stronger is the
personality dimension that describes your personal-
ity. What is your strongest dimension? Your weak-
est dimension? Continue reading the chapter for
specifics about your personality in each of the five
dimensions.
You may visit http://ipip.ori.org to complete a
50- or 100-item Big Five Personality Assessment.
34 Part 1 Individuals as Leaders
The purpose of the Big Five is to reliably categorize, into one of five dimensions, most
if not all of the traits you would use to describe someone else. Thus, each dimension
includes multiple traits. The Big Five Model of Personality categorizes traits into the dimen-
sions of surgency, agreeableness, adjustment, conscientiousness, and openness to experience. The
dimensions are listed in Exhibit 2.1 and described below. As noted in the descriptions,
however, some researchers have slightly different names for the five dimensions.
Surgency
The surgency personality dimension includes leadership and extraversion traits.
(1) People strong in surgency—more commonly called dominance—personality
traits want to be in charge. Their dominant behavior ranges from interest in getting
ahead and leading through competing and influencing. People weak in surgency
want to be followers, and don’t want to compete or influence. (2) Extraversion is
on a continuum between extravert and introvert. Extraverts are outgoing, like to
meet new people, and are assertive and willing to confront others, whereas intro-
verts are shy. Review Self-Assessment 1 statements 1, 6, 11, 16, and 21 on page 32 for
examples of surgency traits. How strong is your desire to be a leader?
Agreeableness
Unlike surgency behavior to get ahead of others, the agreeableness personality
dimension includes traits related to getting along with people. Agreeable personality
behavior is strong when a person is called warm and caring, easygoing and compli-
ant, compassionate and gentle, friendly, and sociable; it is weak when a person is
called cold, difficult, uncompassionate, unfriendly, and unsociable. Strongly agree-
able personality types are sociable, spend most of their time with people, and have
lots of friends. Review Self-Assessment 1 statements 2, 7, 12, 17, and 22 for examples
of agreeableness traits. How important is having good relationships to you?
EXHIBIT Big Five Dimensions of Traits
2.1
Adjustment
Openness to experience
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Surgency
Source: Adapted from T. A. Judge, D. Heller, and M. K. Mount. “Five-Factor Model of Personality and Job
Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis.” Journal of Applied Psychology 87 (June 2002). 530(12).
Chapter 2 Leadership Traits and Ethics 35
Adjustment
The adjustment personality dimension includes traits related to emotional stability.
Adjustment is on a continuum between being emotionally stable and unstable.
Stable refers to self-control, being calm—good under pressure, relaxed, secure, and
positive—praising others; unstable (also called neuroticism) is out of control—poor
under pressure, nervous, insecure, negative, and hostile—criticizing others. Review
Self-Assessment 1 statements 3, 8, 13, 18, and 23 for examples of adjustment traits.
How emotionally stable are you?
Conscientiousness
The conscientiousness personality dimension includes traits related to achievement.
Conscientiousness is also on a continuum between responsible/dependable to
irresponsible/undependable. Other traits of high conscientiousness include cred-
ibility, conformity, and organization. People with this trait are characterized as will-
ing to work hard and put in extra time and effort to accomplish goals to achieve
success—also called organization citizenship behavior. Review Self-Assessment 1
statements 4, 9, 14, 19, and 24 for examples of conscientiousness. How strong is
your desire to be successful?
Openness to Experience
The openness-to-experience personality dimension includes traits related to being
willing to change and try new things. They are imaginative, nonconforming, uncon-
ventional, and autonomous, while those with a weak openness dimension avoid
change and new things. Review Self-Assessment 1 statements 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25
for examples of openness-to-experience traits. How willing are you to change and
try new things?
Personality Profiles
Personality profiles identify individual stronger and weaker traits. Students completing
Self-Assessment 1 tend to have a range of scores for the five dimensions. Review
your personality profile. Do you have higher scores (stronger traits) on some
dimensions and lower scores (weaker traits) on others?
Job Performance
Many organizations (including the National Football League) give personality tests
to ensure a proper match between the worker and the job.8 Personality profiles
are also used to categorize people as a means of predicting job success, and high
conscientiousness is a good predictor of job performance,9 whereas people who
are unstable tend to have poor job performance.10 Change in behavior allows more
effective work.11 People who are high in openness to experience tend to lead inno-
vation to improve organizational performance.12
The Big Five Correlates with Leadership
Researchers conducted a major meta-analysis combining 73 prior studies to cor–
relate the Big Five personality dimensions with leadership. The highest correlation
with leadership was surgency (.31), followed by concensiousness (.28) and openness
to experience (.24). Agreeableness was weakly correlated (.08), and adjustment was
negatively correlated with leadership (–.24).13 In other words, people high in sur–
gency are perceived as leaderlike—they work hard, and they bring about change.
They are not too concerned about being well-liked and trying to please everyone,
and they are stable or not overly emotional. How does your Big Five personality cor–
relate with leadership? If it is not a perfect match, don’t be too concerned because
there are always exceptions to the norm. For example, Steve Jobs (Chapter 1 case)
sometimes gets emotional and yells at employees.
Work
Application 1
Select a present or past man-
ager, and describe his or her
personality profile using each
of the Big Five dimensions.
After rating each dimension
as strong, moderate, or weak,
give an example of traits
and typical behavior of the
manager for each dimension.
Which dimensions are stron-
gest and weakest?
36 Part 1 Individuals as Leaders
Applying the Concept 1
Big Five Personality Dimensions
Identify each of these seven traits/behaviors by its personality dimension. Write the
appropriate letter in the blank before each item.
a. surgency d. conscientiousness
b. agreeableness e. openness to experience
c. adjustment
1. The manager is influencing the follower to do the job the way the leader wants
it done.
2. The sales representative submitted the monthly expense report on time as
usual.
3. The leader is saying a warm, friendly good morning to followers as they arrive
at work.
4. The leader is seeking ideas from followers on how to speed up the flow of
work.
5. As a follower is yelling a complaint, the leader calmly explains what went
wrong.
6. The leader is being very quiet when meeting some unexpected visitors in the
work unit.
7. The leader is giving in to a follower to avoid a conflict.
Opening Case APPLICATION
1. What Big Five personality traits does Lorraine Monroe possess?
To a large extent, Lorraine Monroe was a successful founder and leader because of her
strong personality in the Big Five. She has a strong need for surgency, is conscientious,
