What Does Leaders' Character Add to Transformational Leadership?

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Leadership Studies
• Psychology

Background:

• Leadership research has historically focused on behaviors rather than character traits.
• The impact of leader integrity, humility, and forgiveness on followers is under-explored.
• Understanding character's role is crucial for effective leadership development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of leader integrity and humility/forgiveness on followers' perceptions of worthiness of being followed (WBF).
• To examine the effect of these character traits on followers' stress levels.
• To compare the predictive power of character traits against transformational leadership.

Main Methods:

• A scenario experiment with 347 participants.
• A field study with 110 participants.
• Relative importance analyses to assess predictor significance.

Main Results:

• Leader integrity and humility/forgiveness incrementally predicted followers' WBF beyond transformational leadership.
• These character traits also influenced followers' stress, with a slight exception for integrity in the field study.
• Integrity and transformational leadership demonstrated equal predictive power for WBF.

Conclusions:

• Leader character traits, particularly integrity, are vital predictors of leadership effectiveness and follower well-being.
• Findings suggest integrating character assessment into personnel selection and development.
• Further research should explore additional outcomes and potential downsides of leader character traits.