Essay - Leadership Over the Decades, Much Research Has Been Devoted to...

Leadership

***** the decades, much research has been devoted to studying leadership traits and the qualities of an effective leader. Some of the approaches to assessing *****ship include personality theory, as well as the qualitative approach to leadership research.

In ***** Journal ***** Personality ***** Social Psychology, (1988), D.K. Simonton used the personality basis of ***** research that looks at the effectiveness of a leader as a result of particular personality traits. For this study, ***** carried out an archival analysis of the personalities and personal histories ***** thirty-nine American presidents, and related that to their perceived ***** as Heads of State. An analysis of eight-two separate personality characteristics were ultimately reduced to five general categories; "The interpersonal, charismatic, deliberative, creative, ***** neurotic styles." (Simonton, 1988).

Simonton makes the point ***** research into leadership is frequently concerned with the question of whether a great leader is born, or becomes a ***** leader according to circumstances. "Is *****ship a matter of being the right person, or ***** it due more ***** being at ***** right place ***** the right time?" (Simonton, *****).

***** *****s ***** ***** investigation into leadership indicate that from a wide range of variables, many presupposed "characteristics" of a great leader offer no predictive ability of how a ***** will perform once they assume a leadership role. In fact, Simonton points out, a look at over three dozen American presidents reveals that most ***** the variance in leadership performance is accounted for by six main variables: "These transh*****torically invariant predictors are years in office, number of war years, assassination, scandal, whether the president was a war hero, and intellectual brilliance." (Simonton, 1988).

Since most ***** subjects of this study were, obviously, historical figures, the methodology used primarily involved ***** *****. Fortunately, American ***** have a wealth of biographical ***** ***** documents ***** chronicle every facet of *****ir lives and tenure. Some of the many factors that ***** considered in this study *****d; charisma of the leader, Cabinet nominees, executive orders, Supreme Court resignations, age ***** marriage, birth order, and many others. From ***** abundance of information, Simonton was able to conclude that most of these ***** had little ***** value when considering whether a m*****n would make an effective president.

This study provides some interesting insights in***** ***** and the different ***** to *****ing what goes into making an effective leader. The ***** approach to leadership examines how much ***** an impact a person's character traits have on their ***** potential. **********, Simonton's study seems to point to a low correlation between personality characteristics and leadership ability. The best predictor variables in this study were events, such as *****sassination or war years, that had ***** to do ***** a President's personality profile. This ***** seem ***** encourage the belief that leaders aren't necessarily born, but may be taught.

A more recent ***** to the ***** of leadership involves a greater emphasis on qualitative research. This research method c*****ntrates ***** individual situations and ***** leadership qualities unique to them,