Ralph Stogdill et al.
Sergio Caredda
Stogdill, R. M. (1948). Personal Factors Associated with Leadership: A Survey of the Literature. The Journal of Psychology, 25(1), 35–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1948.9917362
Description:
Trait Theory developed as a consequence of the Great Man Theory, whereby several authors tried to identify the innate traits of successful leaders. The psychologist Ralph Stogdill challenged the idea of some innate traits, and in 1948 wrote a paper analysing over 100 articles on the topic, essentially casting doubt that innate traits can be identified. Out of his analysis, 27 different areas where identified:
- Age
- Dominance
- Height
- Initiative, persistence, ambition, desire to excel
- Weight
- Physique, energy, health
- Responsibility
- Appearance
- Integrity and conviction
- Fluency of speech
- Self-confidence
- Intelligence
- Happiness, sense of humour
- Academic results
- Emotional stability and control
- Knowledge
- Social and economic status
- Judgement and decision (US-English, judgment)
- Social activity and mobility
- Insight (self, others, wider environment)
- Energy, daring and adventurousness
- Originality
- Social skills (sociability, tact)
- Adaptability
- Popularity, prestige
- Introversion-Extraversion
- Cooperation
This showed that there wasn’t much agreement on the key traits. Indeed, it was clear that if all the findings were combined, the list became too long to be useful as a guide for selecting future leaders. He, therefore, suggested that leadership is the result of the interaction between the individual and the social situation and not merely the result of a predefined set of traits. Thus Personal traits alone are not indicators of effective leadership and need to be complemented by specific abilities and motivators.
This opened the road to the development of the broader set of contingency theories. However, a lot of models still refer today to “personality traits” as the basis of the leadership, and tend to “mix” their impact on success.
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