The Importance Of Leader Integrity

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Leader integrity is a predictor of occupational performance which signifies its relevance as an important feature for effective leadership. This is supported by meta-analytic data from Ones et al (1993) and Judge and Bono (2001) indicating that measures of integrity predict occupational performance in the .30 to .50 range (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005 p.172). These findings strengthen the notion that integrity is a key component of effective leadership and is further supported by evidence linking perceptions of integrity with leader effectiveness (Brown & Treviño, 2006, p.596). Here, evidence indicates that a leader being honest and obtaining strong moral principles creates a climate of trust which coincides with the advantages of personal power. …show more content…

This implies that integrity can be influenced by the morals of a corporation and therefore, in order to be an ethical leader one needs to be consistent in ethical leadership. This however, does not subtract from the importance of integrity being a key feature for an effective leader as “the more a leader obtains ethical principles, the higher level of trust and respect they will generate from followers” (Mihelič et al, 2010, p.31) confirming that high levels of integrity produce effective results. Organisational performance is an outcome of integrity which also links to charisma being another important feature for an effective leader as this can also impact …show more content…

Here, attribution theory is useful in highlighting how charismatic leadership is important. According to the theory, charisma is an attributional phenomenon therefore, effective charismatic leadership is an attribution followers make. Here, Ensari & Murphy’s (2003) case study highlights how culture can affect whether followers perceive a leader as charismatic as they can attribute charisma to leader traits or to company performance (Robbins & Judge, 2009, p.467). This indicates that variables such as emotional intelligence and culture play a crucial role in determining whether a leader is perceived as charismatic. Attribution theory suggests that projecting the appearance of being a leader is more important than focusing on actual achievements (Robbins & Judge, 2009, p.467) which implies that leaders need to appear charismatic in the eyes of