The ‘dark side’ of leadership personality and transformational leadership: An exploratory study

There is growing interest in dysfunctional dispositions in the workplace, in particular relating to leaders and managers within organizations. This paper reports an exploratory study investigating the relationship between the ‘dark side’ of leadership personality and transformational leadership. Data were collected from a sample of New Zealand business leaders and senior managers (n = 80) from scores on the Hogan Development Survey (HDS; Hogan & Hogan, 1997) and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ; Bass & Avolio, 1995). Regression analyses revealed the ‘Colorful’ (histrionic) dimension of the HDS to be a positive predictor of transformational leadership, while the ‘Cautious’ (avoidant) and ‘Bold’ (narcissistic) dimensions of the HDS were revealed as negative predictors of transformational leadership. This is one of the first reports to suggest a relationship between histrionic personality and transformational leadership, in a literature preoccupied with the relationship between leadership and narcissism.