This article explores 1 mechanism by which leader personality affects organizational performance. The authors hypothesized and tested the effects of leader personality on the group dynamics of the top management team (TMT) and of TMT dynamics on organizational performance. To test their hypotheses, the authors used the group dynamics q-sort method, which is designed to permit rigorous, quantitative comparisons of data derived from qualitative sources. Results from independent observations of chief executive officer (CEO) personality and TMT dynamics for 17 CEOs supported the authors' hypothesized relationships both between CEO personality and TMT group dynamics and between TMT dynamics and organizational performance.

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This article unveils a new research methodology for the study of group decision making in organizations-the group dynamics q-sort (GDQ). The GDQ is a 100-item instrument designed to study group process across a wide variety of situations and using a wide variety of data sources. It combines the descriptive richness of the qualitative approach with the rigor of a quantitative approach by creating a common data language to describe process across groups, observers, and time. This article introduces the GDQ in the following five sections: (a) the development of the group dynamics q-sort, (b) comparisons of the GDQ with other traditional research methods (i.e., questionnaires, case studies, experiments, and behavioral process coding), (c) the mechanics of employing the GDQ, (d) a demonstration of the method for studying dynamic group processes over time, and (e) summary and other potential applications of the method.

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