Traits Approach to Leadership

During the first half of the twentieth century, the most common approach to studying leadership was the traits approach. To be able to induce others to follow, leaders were assumed to possess certain characteristics--i.e., assertiveness, sensitivity, integrity, friendliness. Leaders then could be identified as individuals possessing these traits, and leadership training would be valuable only to those inherently blessed with such qualities and the willingness to cultivate and employ such qualities (Hersey & Blanchard, 1993, p. 97; Quinn et al., 1998, pp. 37-38).

The premise that leaders are born has been almost completely discredited in the second half of this century. The unseating of this assumption was primarily the result of a failure, over a fifty-year period, of any empirical evidence to support the identification of particular traits that separate leaders from nonleaders or that predict an individualÆs success or failure. However, trait research continues, and its

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oncepts: employee orientation and production orientation. A leader could be categorized by orientation depending on whether he or she emphasized (1) the importance of employees and their needs or (2) the importance of the production and the technical aspects of the job (Hersey & Blanchard, pp. 102-103). Other researchers followed suit, and a body of research built up around task-related versus relationship-related leadership styles, with the recognition that, while the dimensions could be plotted separately, a leaderÆs behaviors would fall into both dimensions. Ultimately, the study of these dimensions led to the categorization of entire management systems as "employee-centered" or "job-centered" (Quinn et al., 1988, pp. 22-37). In the late-1960s, Rensis Likert described and developed instruments for measuring a "continuum" of management systems that ultimately became useful to an organization in measuring and improving its own system. At one end of the continuum, System 1 is management seen as having no confidence or respect in employees because they are seldom involved in the decision making process; on the other end, System 4 is management seen as having complete confidence and trust, with decision making being widely shar
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Hersey Blanchard, Rensis Likert, Kouzes Posner, Blake Mouton, Trait Approaches, Conclusion Tracing, Warren Bennis, , John Gardner, Situational Leadership, hersey blanchard, blanchard 1993, hersey blanchard 1993, 1993 pp, blanchard 1993 pp, leader behavior, kouzes posner 1987, kouzes posner, posner 1987, leadership styles, situational leadership, attitudinal approaches, traits approach, hersey blanchard pp, cliffs nj prentice-hall,
Approximate Word count = 1560
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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