Character for Leadership: The Role of Personal Characteristics
in Effective
Leadership Behaviors
Submitted to Regent University
School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship
In partial fulfillment of the requirements
for
the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Organizational Leadership
Reid A. Kisling
April 2007
UMI Number: 3292253
3292253
2008
Copyright 2008 by
Kisling, Reid A.
UMI Microform
Copyright
All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against
unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.
ProQuest Information
and Learning Company
300 North Zeeb Road
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346
All rights reserved.
by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
Character for Leadership
iii
Abstract
While character is popularly considered a significant determinant of behavior,
current theories of leadership typically consider behavior
alone in the evaluation of
effective leadership. One model of transformational leadership, visionary
leadership theory (VLT; Sashkin & Rosenbach, 1996; Sashkin & Sashkin, 2002),
incorporates the personal characteristics of the leader in addition to specific leader
behaviors in the consideration of effective leadership. Using the model of character
constructed by Cloninger, Svrakic, and Pryzbeck (1993),
this study evaluated
differences of character levels on effective visionary leadership behaviors for a
sample of students preparing for religious leadership. This study utilized The
Leadership Profile (TLP; Sashkin, Rosenbach, & Sashkin, 1997) and the
Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI; Cloninger, Przybeck, Svarkic, &
Wetzel, 1994) instruments. Study participants were segmented
by levels of prior
ministry leadership experience and ministry leadership participation while in school
as well as by levels of the character traits self-directedness, cooperativeness, and
self-transcendence. Results demonstrated statistically significant findings for the
character trait levels of self-directedness (confident leadership by self-directedness
level—
χ
2
= 20.37,
p
= .00; visionary leadership by self-directedness level—
χ
2
=
17.29,
p
= .00) and cooperativeness (follower-centered
leadership by
cooperativeness level—
χ
2
= 7.97,
p
= .02; visionary leadership by cooperativeness
level—
χ
2
= 18.40,
p
= .00) but not for levels of self-transcendence. Exploratory
regression analysis showed that self-directedness and self-transcendence scale
scores predict a significant amount of the variance in visionary leadership behavior
scores (
R
2
= .306,
F
= 21.61,
p
= .00). Regression analysis also
showed that prior
ministry leadership experience level, when combined with self-directedness and
self-transcendence scale scores, predicts a significant amount of the variance in
visionary leadership behavior scores (
R
2
= .338,
F
= 16.53,
p
= .00).
This study also
provides conceptual development of distinctions between character, values, ethics,
and morality as well as links between behavioral self-regulation and character.