Individual Difference Correlates of Two Leadership Styles

The Leadership Opinion Questionnaire (Fleishman, 1969) is a 40-item questionnaire designed to measure two important dimensions of leadership style, consideration and initiating structure. This research provides evidence from one sample which contradicts previous results involving this instrument and technically does not support the view that these two styles of leadership are unrelated to each other or to other measures of individual differences.

Fear of Failure and Indices of Leadership Utilized in the Training of ROTC Cadets

Subjects were 43 male college seniors enrolled in the Army ROTC program. A modified version of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) was administered and scored for fear of failure motivation by means of the Hostile Press system of Birney, Burdick, and Teevan. Scores from the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire of Fleishman, and subjects' leadership evaluations from ROTC cadet summer camp were utilized as indices of various leadership traits. Significant negative correlations were found between fear of failure, as measured by the Hostile Press system, and both Initiative and Structure. Individuals who feared failure tended to structure neither their own roles nor the roles of their subordinates toward goal attainment. They did not show the ability to take necessary and appropriate actions on their own during summer training. These findings are discussed in terms of the individuals who fear failure, concern with the opinions of others, and their need to submit to gain approval.

Leadership Style and Leniency Bias in Evaluation of Employees' Performance

The relationship between leadership style and leniency in merit rating of subordinates was examined in this study. The sample of 35 superiors were in an industrial plant in Israel. The subjects completed the leadership Opinion Questionnaire and assessed their subordinates on the company's standard performance appraisal form of 15 evaluation items. Initiating structure was strongly related to leniency in evaluation of subordinates and in particular to the appraisal of task-related items. Consideration was related only to the appraisal of task-related items. The results are discussed in terms of their implications to development of management and evaluation of performance.

Leadership Style Emphasis and Related Personality Attributes

This study examined differences in personality attributes between supervisors who placed equal emphasis on the people and task dimensions of leadership and those who tended to be exclusively people- or task-oriented. Using the Leadership Opinion Questionnaire as a measure of preference for a particular leadership style and the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire to assess personality attributes, it was found that subjects evidencing a preference for a “balanced” style tended to be more tough-minded, practical, conservative, and group-dependent.