Character for Leadership: The Role of Personal Characteristics

Recommendations for Future Research 
One specific recommendation for future research efforts is to evaluate 
character development longitudinally.
If leaders develop as the constructive/developmental perspective suggests, 
then a longitudinal approach is necessary to discover/decipher the variables 
that influence how this leadership emerges and how it is expressed. Thus, 
studies are needed that span leaders’ careers; at the same time, these studies 
should identify the ways in which experiences are reflected in changes in 
the leaders’ cognitive organizing processes. (Kuhnert & Lewis, 1987, p. 
654) 
Experimental designs need to be developed to begin to empirically establish 
causality so that leadership development can truly benefit from these concepts. 
Additionally, this study was accomplished with a sample of prospective 
ministry leaders: students preparing for vocational Christian service. Many of these 
leaders already had previous vocational ministry experience. Nonetheless, this 

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study should be replicated using pastoral ministry leaders as a population, not just 
prospective leaders. 
Some concepts that are part of VLT were addressed conceptually in the 
literature review but not specifically measured by this study. One specific concept 
is that of vision. Is vision tied to self-regulation (as posited in the literature 
review)? Is vision also tied to one’s character trait of self-transcendence (the ability 
to see long-term implications)? Additional research should consider these questions 
specifically to determine the emergence of such a significant construct to the 
landscape of leadership literature (Conger, 1989; Strange & Mumford, 2002). 
Second, this study did not specifically consider how the situation affects the 
leadership outcome of the situation as posited by VLT. Future studies should 
consider how the character of the leader interacts with particular aspects of the 
situation to create a positive organizational outcome. 
As stated, significant links have been found in the literature between 
transformational leadership and follower affect, follower development of trust, and 
overall measures organizational effectiveness. However, future research should 
attempt to address how these areas of leadership and organizational function are 
affected by the character traits of leaders. 
This study has attempted to demonstrate that specific character traits are 
necessary to effective leadership function. If this is true, our only hope for good 
leadership then is to develop leaders of good character. If then it is possible to 
intentionally foster such changes in people, then maybe our most significant hope 
lays in the process of building character (Klann, 2007). 

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