Access Type

Open Access Dissertation

Date of Award

January 2012

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Marcus W. Dickson

Abstract

This study uses experimental methodology to examine transformational leadership as a buffering mechanism for problematic personality combinations. 118 German university students comprising 59 dyadic teams participated in a lab-based investigation to examine matched high levels of extraversion within dyadic teams. The presence of transformational leadership (TL) as opposed to a non-leadership intervention was investigated to examine the effects of TL on group members' task performance on both conjunctive and disjunctive tasks. To assess conjunctive task performance, participants performed an employee selection task, and to assess disjunctive task performance participants performed a NASA survival ranking task. Performance was measured against expert ratings on these tasks. Hypotheses were that dyadic teams based on the pairing of highly extraverted individuals in the TL condition would outperform their no leadership intervention condition counterparts. No support for the proposed hypotheses was found. Limitations and future implications for research are discussed.

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