Destructive Personality Traits and Leadership Performance: A Pattern-Oriented Approach

Abstract

This study applied a pattern-oriented methodology to the investigation of destructive personality traits and their relationship to leadership performance. Previous research was extended (Hogan & Hogan, 2001) by using Hogan and Hogan's 'Dark Side' model, which identified 11 personality traits associated with managerial derailment. Hogan and Hogan created the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) to measure subjects across the 11 traits, scoring high or low on each dimension. For the purposes of this study, I received an archived database of subject responses (N = 295) to the HDS. The subject pool contained working adults who were top executive leaders in the workplace at the time of the investigation. Using a hierarchical agglomerative clustering method, as well as a combinatorial iterative partitioning method, seven primary personality trait configurations were identified. By way of a Multivariate Analysis of Variance, significant differences were found between several clusters on both measures of interpersonal qualities, as well as task-oriented performance. Overall, Cluster 7 showed the lowest performance scores on both criterion measures, based on multi-source performance ratings. A Cluster 7 profile describes a person who is unpredictable, critical, overreacts to pressure, prefers to be alone, not afraid of failure, self-confident, suspicious of authority, sensitive to criticism, resistant to change, detail-oriented, well-organized, decisive and willing to take risks. It is the combination of these traits that coexist to create a behavioral syndrome, which in turn is believed to be attributable to the unsatisfactory leadership performance scores.