Managerial leadership and effectiveness, and their relationship to personality in the former USSR.

Abstract

Managers (n = 120) from various industries in the former Soviet Republic of Armenia were studied to test the cross-cultural validity of Western models of personality and managerial effectiveness and to assess the relationship among optimism, the five factor model of personality, and the competing values framework of leadership effectiveness. The revised learned helplessness model (Abramson et al., 1978) which assesses optimism and the five factor model of personality were both replicated. The learned helplessness model was replicated through multidimensional scaling, giving empirical support for theoretically derived dimensions. Aggregated observer report data yielded five factors labeled Cultured/Thoughtful, Kind/Understanding, Irritability, Interpersonally Aggressive, and Diligence. These represent a partial replication of the classical five factor model of personality in that these are components of the model that are most salient to workers in a subordinate-manager relationship. The five factor model of personality was not replicated using self-report data, however, due to a contamination of local values of social desirability. The competing values framework of effectiveness and leadership was also replicated through a multidimensional scaling. Armenian managers made the greatest use of the rational goal model of effectiveness. Their managerial technique was complex in that they were able to make use of style that included both Theory X and Theory Y approaches to management (McGregor, 1960). Managers underutilized the open systems and internal process models of effectiveness. It was predicted that the style of management adopted by Soviet managers would reflect personality dispositions. Trait measures for surgency were associated with each of the four models of effectiveness described in the competing values framework. The five factor model accounted for 18% to 23% of the variance when predicting adoption of specific models of managerial effectiveness. Different combinations of the classical five factor traits were associated with the adoption of each model of effectiveness. Overall, measures of optimism did little to predict managerial behavior. This study represents a snapshot of the transition from Soviet power to autonomy and a market economy. These results not only reflect the naive theories of personality and management held by these Soviet people, but they indicate the abilities of managers who were part of the early transition to a market economy.