Investigating the relationship between personality and Leadership Essay - 1

Investigating the relationship between personality and Leadership - Essay Example For example, Theory X and Y of management may be used within the same company in different departments depending on the nature of the work involved. Theory X of management assumes that most people have personalities that dislike work and must be controlled by strong means if they are to remain productive. Further, people need direction as well as control and not independence while they work (NetMBA, 2005). Theory Y is the complete opposite of this since it suggests that people are naturally inclined towards work as they are towards play and rest. Additionally, people find satisfaction in work and will use imagination, creativity and their personal skills to solve work related problems if they are allowed to work as they please (NetMBA, 2005). A manager who has a personality which is a good fit for managing with Theory X would find it difficult to create productivity in a department which should be governed with Theory Y. In such situations, personality itself can be defined as the collective emotional, thinking, and action patterns which are exhibited by an individual which are more or less consistent over a period of time (Miner & Dachler, 1973). Psychologists and those who study human personality have defined types of personalities and presented theories which help in placing individuals on certain scales of personality (Joy, 2004). The idea of personality as a set of individual levels of certain traits is fully supported by Cattell (Statt, 2004). It is also suggested that there are quite a few elements which affect human personality and the interaction of these traits as well as the reactions they produce to various stimuli result in a fully formed personality (Plucker, 2007). The work done by Cattell is important for the study of personality and productivity since it lets us gauge an individual’s personality and then connect it to their performance at a given position in the company. At the same time, we have