What Does Leaders' Character Add to Transformational Leadership?
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 9, 2026

The HoneyComb Paradigm for Research on Collective Human Behavior
Published on: January 19, 2019
1a Technische Universität Darmstadt.
Abstract:
The influence of leaders' character (e.g., integrity, humility/forgiveness) has rarely been examined in leadership research. The current investigation focused on the impact of integrity and humility/forgiveness on both followers' perceptions of leaders' worthiness of being followed (WBF) and stress. Results from a scenario experiment (n = 347) and a field study (n = 110) indicated that these aspects incrementally predict WBF above and beyond the impact of transformational leadership. Similar results were found concerning followers' stress with the exception of leader integrity in the field study. According to relative importance analyses, integrity and transformational leadership predict WBF equally well. The results have conceivable implications for human resources (personnel selection and development). Future research should examine additional outcome variables that are affected by certain leader characteristics as well as potential negative effects of the examined character aspects.
Related Concept Videos
Maslow's Humanistic Approach on Personality
Impact of Individuals on a Group
Role-Based Identity
Desirable Characteristics in Others
Carl Rogers' Humanistic Perspective on Personality
The organism refers to an individual's inherent blueprint, which Rogers saw as innately positive and directed toward helping others, unlike Freud's view of the id as driven by base impulses. The self is a person's...
Self-Evaluation: Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification

