Leadership Effectiveness and Personality Characteristics of Group Members

Abstract

Perceptions of leadership appear to be changing. Research has shown a shift in emphasis in regard to the factors influencing leadership effectiveness in a group. Whereas early scholars focused on leaders personality characteristics as key to leadership effectiveness in group situations, today, there has been a turning toward a concern for group members' characteristics and a parallel concern for the ensuing influence on leadership behavior. The old belief that only the leader has the inherent ability to make things happen has been found wanting. Emphasis is fast shifting away from the idea that leadership effectiveness is unilaterally influenced by the leader's personality characteristics toward the notion that leadership effectiveness is bilaterally influenced by the dynamics of both the leader and the group members' personality characteristics. This paper presents some findings of research on leadership to support the critical influence of group members' characteristics on leadership effectiveness. Implications are noted for leaders, trainers, and researchers.

Impact of organizational culture on strategic planning

“…A strong association between organizational culture and leadership effectiveness has been observed (Kwantes and Boglarsky, 2007), and strategic planning is influenced by leadership effectiveness. Leadership influences group members and their characteristics (Sogunro, 1999). Strategies include tactical plans across various functional areas and involve managers at multiple levels.…”

Multi‐level complexity in the management of knowledge networks

“…The manner in which these ®ve factors relate is displayed in Figure 3 In this instance, cognition would encompass all the functionally different collectives of associative networks, as they operate in conjunction with personal experience and cognitive ability. Social contingencies encompass concerns such as group think (Janis, 1982), group polarization (Lamm, 1988;Lamm and Myers, 1978), relationship building (Seufert et al, 1999), trust (Cvetkovich and Lo È fstedt, 1999;Fulop, 2002), social validation (Hinsz, 1990;Stasser, 1999), social structures (Nonaka et al, 2000;Nooteboom, 1999;von Krogh et al, 2000;Seufert et al, 1999), status (Cialdini and Trost, 1998), leadership (Barling et al, 2000;Chrislip and Larson, 1994;Sogunro, 1998), power (Bendor et al, 2001;Fulop et al, 1999), and of course, politics Olsen, 1975, 1976;Cohen et al, 1972;Lindblom, 1959Lindblom, , 1979Simon, 1957). The third helix displayed in the model represents communication issues.…”

Evaluation of the impact of the 2003 Aurora Leadership Institute — ‘the gift that keeps on giving’

“…This implies that organisations will have to realise that every employee is a potential leader whose leadership ability should be developed (Sogunro, 1998). Sogunro' s study concluded that leadership can be made more effective if organisations are concerned with the training of all their members, rather than training just the few designated leaders.…”