A Dissertation Presentation

Leadership and Commitment: The Relationship Between Leaders’ Personality Traits

and Organizational Commitment

Matt T. Argano

Abstract

• Is there a relationship between leaders’ personality traits and organizational commitment among their associates?

• Five Apparel and/or Consumer Packaged Goods organizations

• New York and New Jersey

• Leaders’ personality traits

• Measured with the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) • Associates’ organizational commitment

• Measured with Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ)

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• A quantitative research design tested the relationship between leaders’ personality traits and organizational commitment

• Findings:

• There is a significant relationship between: • Specific leaders’ personality traits and organizational

commitment in associates

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Introduction

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Today’s leaders face complex & rapidly changing landscapes

When strong leadership is not demonstrated, “teams lose, armies are defeated, economies dwindle, and nations fall.”

Hogan, Gordon, Curphy, and Hogan (1994)

Talent is one of the most important resources in organizations

Personality “An individual's characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with psychological mechanisms behind those patterns." (Funder, 2001)

Personality

EQ IQ

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Organizational Commitment

“Employee participation in, sense of belonging to, and emotional attachment with the organization.” (Meyer & Allen, 1996)

• Support & acceptance of the goals, objectives & values

• A willingness to exert effort on behalf of the organization

• A desire to retain membership with the organization

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Types of Commitment

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Affective Commitment Employee remains because they WANT to

Continuance Commitment Employee remains because they NEED to

Normative Commitment Employee remains because they OUGHT to

Problem Statement

• IF RESEARCH indicated that specific personality traits in leaders’ maximized levels of organizational commitment in associates

• Organizations would be well positioned to utilize the findings to make informed decisions concerning human capital

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• To examine how leaders’ personality traits influenced organizational commitment among their associates • Q1: Are there differences in leaders’ personality traits based on gender and ethnicity?

• Q2: What are the relationships between personality traits in leaders and organizational commitment among their associates?

Purpose of the Study

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• Competitive landscape & high-quality leadership • Organizational excellence:

• Clear vision • Principled leadership • Reciprocal relationships and • High degrees of follower trust

• When employees and followers feel genuinely respected and nurtured by their leaders Organizations are positioned for: - Greater levels of productivity - Performance - Employee commitment

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Five Factor Model of Personality

Extroversion: Sociability, assertiveness, gregarious, and social interaction

Agreeableness: Good-natured, sympathy, trust, and cooperation

Conscientiousness: Competence, dependable

Neuroticism: Calm, self-confident, secure (positive) versus anxious, depressed, insecure, volatile (negative)

Openness to Experience: Imaginative, inquisitive, sensitivity, and intellectualism

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Five Factor Model and Hogan Scale Comparison

Neuroticism Adjustment

Extraversion Ambition and Sociability

Five Factor Model Hogan Taxonomy

Agreeableness Interpersonal Sensitivity

Conscientiousness Prudence

Open to Experience Inquisitive & Learning Approach

(Hogan, 1992)

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• The impact of leaders’ personality traits on organizational commitment in Apparel and/or Consumer Packaged Goods organizations

• New York and New Jersey • Annual revenues exceeding $500 million

• Descriptive statistics

• Mean & standard deviation • Two way analysis of variance (ANOVA) • Multiple regression analysis

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Research Design & Methodology

• The criterion variable was organizational commitment

• The predictor variables were the HPI’s five traits

• A Two-Way ANOVA

• The effect of multiple levels of two factors with multiple observations at each level (gender, ethnicity and individual Hogan traits)

• Multiple regression analysis • The effects of 2+ independent variables on 1 dependent

variable

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• Adjustment • Ambition

• Sociability • Interpersonal Sensitivity

• Prudence

Participants’ Demographics

Ethnicity Total Male Female

Caucasian 77 42 35

African-American 35 16 19

Hispanic 63 30 33

Asian 29 18 11

Other 0 0 0

Total 204 106 98

Ethnicity Total Male Female

Caucasian 16 8 8

African-American 11 5 6

Hispanic 12 6 6

Asian 11 6 5

Other 0 0 0

Total 50 25 25

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Leader Population

Associate Population

Instrumentation

Leaders: Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) 206 T/F questions

Associates: Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) 15 questions 7 point Likert scale

Two Instruments:

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Validity

Hogan Personality Assessment (HPI) Pe

rfo

rman

ce

Conformity to Assessment Profile

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(Hogan, 1992)

Study Results

• Associates were generally committed to their organizations • A significant relationship between

• Specific personality traits in leaders & • Impact upon organizational commitment

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• No relationship between gender, ethnicity & Hogan personality traits • Associates respond more favorably to Leaders with higher degrees of: - Emotional stability - Greater interpersonal skills • Interpersonal Sensitivity & Adjustment traits Influenced levels of organizational commitment • Remaining traits showed weak relationships With organizational commitment

• Adjustment and Interpersonal Sensitivity traits • Focus on the more social aspects of human interaction • Manifests in the leader’s ability to:

- Effectively manage relationships with others • Female leaders high Interpersonal Sensitivity & Sociability • Male leaders high Adjustment, Ambition & Prudence

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• Male leaders scored high in Ambition, with the Ambition mean for male leaders (M = 74.20, SD = 22.46) being higher than the mean for female leaders (M = 67.24, SD = 26.41). Hogan’s Ambition trait is characterized by competitiveness, goal orientation, and a desire to seek out leadership roles • Males scored slightly higher than females on Hogan’s Prudence trait. The Prudence mean for male leaders (M = 65.68, SD = 25.38) was only six points higher than the mean for female leaders (M = 59.76, SD = 21.92). Hogan described Prudence as the degree to which an individual seems conscientious, conforming, and often dependable

Ambition/Organizational Commitment

Weak, negative relationship

Adjustment/Organizational Commitment

Moderate, positive relationship

Sociability/Organizational Commitment

Weak, positive relationship

Prudence/Organizational Commitment

Very weak relationship

Interpersonal Sensitivity/Organizational

Commitment

Definite, but not quite moderate, positive relationship

The research study reflected that after controlling for all other variables:

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Implications for Practice

• The study supported prior research that:

Self management and emotional awareness in leaders remains a critical cornerstone in

developing and maintaining relationships in organizations • Relationship management is essential in the leaders’ ability to - Effectively communicate, collaborate and influence others for the greater good of the organization

• Leadership is a personal journey • Leadership directly impacts organizational function

• Leaders who are: Self aware and manage emotions & behavior are well positioned to become high performing organizational stewards • Leaders who fail: Will find it difficult to develop & maintain relationships resulting in underperforming teams & organizations •Leaders who effectively manage: Stress, ambiguity and conflict will increase their success and effectiveness

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• The study also reflected a negative relationship between lower scores on Ambition with higher levels of organizational commitment • Associates become de-motivated or disengaged when they perceive that their leader is: - Narcissistic - Self promoting - Placing personal gain above organizational good

• Female leaders appear more inclined to: develop and nurture followers’ interests into common organizational goals by leveraging their personality traits

• Female leaders may be better positioned to understand and respond to followers’ needs

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