The Psychology of Leadership in Rapidly Changing Conditions A Structural Psychological Approach

A structural psychological approach to understanding effective executive leadership is presented. It is argued that effective leadership requires the capacity to respond in an adaptive manner to emergent, dynamic, and complex situations. This capacity, in turn, depends on the readiness to acquire new skills and strategies for coping with complexity and change. Nevertheless, empirical research has largely overlooked the vital potentiality of self that seems necessary to engender and sustain effective leadership. Accordingly, a structural approach to leadership is proposed. In this approach, the whole (the personality organization, the self-system), in addition to being different from and greater than the sum of its parts, causally determines the fate of the parts, so that the emergent, holistic properties of the whole at all different levels become causally real in their own form. The psychological construct of active coping (Shanan, 1990) is used to demonstrate the conceptual link between personality structure and effective leadership. Propositions toward a general psychological model of leadership are outlined, and suggestions for investigating the model empirically are made. In this article, we address the relationship between personality and effective leadership in business settings. In particular, we examine the psychological characteristics required to generate leadership and sustain it at the highest ranks of an organization. Previous empirical research on determinants of leadership effectiveness has focused on discrete personality traits or behaviors. This emphasis has had limited results because narrowly defined traits have frequently been found to be situation specific in their associations with leadership. Indeed, effective executive leadership depends on the ability to respond in an adaptive manner to emergent, dynamic, and complex situations (Carroll & Gillen, 1987; Kotter, 1990; Skinner & Sasser, 1977; Whitley, 1989). This ability, in turn, requires the readiness to continually develop new skills and knowledge for coping with complexity and change. Published research, however, has largely neglected the potential for leaders to grow and change over time. Consequently, we argue that it is not a single trait or set of traits that determines a leader's current and continuing effectiveness, but rather a structural psychological characteristic. To examine this assertion, we have divided this article into four sections. We begin with a few definitions, to ensure a common understanding of terms. We then present a brief historical overview of the empirical literature on the relationship between personality and leadership. In the second section, we identify four areas of personality that this literature has neglected. We argue that those oversights may be connected by a structural approach. In the third section we delineate such an approach, using the psychological construct of active coping (Shanan, 1990), to demonstrate the conceptual link between personality structure and leadership. Integrating material discussed in the previous sections, in the fourth section we outline propositions toward a general psychological model of leadership. Finally, we make suggestions for investigating these propositions empirically.