LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Assignment Title: Overview of Trait and Behavior Approaches
Course: CHMN 699 - Internship
Student: Kristine Sage
Date: January 29, 2022
Professor: Dr. Joel Breidenbaugh
Overview of Trait and Behavior Approaches
Trait Theory
The earliest studies of leadership focused on the traits of the person, sometimes called the Great
Man Theory. This approach assumes that great leaders are born that way. Researchers sought to
identify the characteristics that were similar in effective leaders. This theory was fueled by the
relatively new field of psychology and emerging research on personality, intelligence, and other
traits that became so prevalent in the early twentieth century. However, in the late 40s, Ralph
Stogdill published his classic research that found no statistically significant difference in
hundreds of studies enough to prove that traits could predict effective leadership. This famous
“Stogdill paper” (1948) essentially ended most personality-based leadership research for several
decades.
Style and Behavior
When most trait theory disappeared in the leadership literature, researches focused on what
leaders do, instead of who they are. Style or behavior of the leader became the focus of such
studies. Most of these revolved around a comparison of a relationship orientation versus task
orientation of the leader. The Ohio State Leadership Studies (1963) found that leader behavior
clustered in “consideration” and “initiating structure” behaviors, measured as two distinct leader
behaviors. From these studies, Stogdill (1963) developed the Leader Behavior Description
Questionnaire (LBDQ) short form that is still in use today. About the same time, researchers at
the University of Michigan (e.g., Likert, 1961) were measuring leader behavior on a single
continuum, as either “employee orientation” or “production orientation.” But later studies there
paralleled most task versus relational orientation leadership research, i.e., both orientations can
be found in the same leader to a lesser or greater degree (as in the Ohio State studies).
Renewed Interest in Traits
More recently, some theorists have focused again on traits of leaders versus non-leaders
(Kirkpatrick & Locke, 1991). The Sashkins (2003) have joined this renewed interest in studying
personality characteristics by using the “Big Five” Personality Factors on which most academic
personality psychologist agree (p. 27). Though these five have not been compared with leader
effectiveness, the Sashkins compared the “Big Five” factors with the “Derailing Factors” that
McCall & Lombardo (1983) found to be the problem when executives fail—one or more of
them.
References
Kirkpatrick, S. A., & Locke, E. A. (1991). Leadership: Do traits matter? The Executive, 5, 48-60.
Likert, R. (1961). New patterns of management. New York: McGraw-Hill
McCall, M. W., Jr, & Lombardo, M. M. (1983). Off the track: Why and how successful
executives get derailed (Technical Report No. 21). Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative
Leadership.
Sashkin, M. & M. G. (2003), Leadership that matters: The critical factors for making a
difference in people’s lives and organizations’ success. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-
Koehler Publishers.
Stogdill, R. M. (1948). Personal factors associated with leadership: A survey of the literature.
Journal of Psychology, 25, 35-71.
Stogdill, R. M. (1963) Manual for the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire—Form XII.
Columbus: Ohio State University, Bureau of Business Research.
