The Relative and Incremental Validity of the Big Five and Maladaptive Personality Characteristics for Predicting Leadership Effectiveness

Although previous research has examined "bright" personality characteristics that impact leadership effectiveness through their presence, there is a growing recognition of the importance of factors that promote leadership effectiveness through their absence (e.g., Hogan & Hogan, 2001; McCall & Lombardo, 1983). These "dark" or maladaptive personality characteristics have been hypothesized to interact with the length of time that an observer has been exposed to a given manager (Hogan & Hogan, 1997, 2001). In the current study, the relative and incremental validity of the Big Five and maladaptive personality characteristics in predicting leadership effectiveness was examined, as well as the moderating effect of leader-subordinate relationship length. Although previous research has examined "bright" and "dark" personality characteristics in the prediction of leadership effectiveness (e.g., Facteau & Van Landuyt, 2005; Judge, Bono, Illies, & Gerhardt, 2003), this study was the first attempt to examine both types of personality characteristics in the prediction of leadership effectiveness, in addition to the moderating role of relationship length. Personality data were collected from a sample of supervisors (N = 134), and their direct reports (N = 330) provided concurrent ratings of their supervisors' effectiveness. The multiple regression analyses revealed that the Big Five and maladaptive personality characteristics did not predict leadership effectiveness. In addition, the Big Five personality dimensions did not demonstrate incremental validity over and above the maladaptive characteristics, nor did the maladaptive characteristics demonstrate incremental validity over and above the Big Five personality dimensions in the prediction of leadership effectiveness. Finally, the relation between the maladaptive personality characteristics and leadership effectiveness did not vary as a function of leader-subordinate relationship length, contrary to the predictions of previous theoretical work (Hogan & Hogan, 2001).

Author dc:creator

• Lindberg McGinnis, Jennifer Tricia

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• S. Bartholomew Craig, Committee Chair
• S. Bob Pond, Committee Member
• Mark A. Wilson, Committee Member

• relationship length
• dark side
• leadership effectiveness
• Big Five
• maladaptive personality

Statement dc:rights

• I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dis sertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Dc Identifier Other

etd-11052006-172739

OAI record oai:identifier

https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Arepository.lib.ncsu.edu%3A1840.16%2F2556