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they are expected to perform (Ziller, 1973). Political leaders higher in self confidence
trust their own judgment over that of others, and may persist in a failing course of action
for longer than leaders lower in self confidence. Finally, Task Orientation measures the
degree to which leaders are motivated by completion of the task at hand versus
maintenance of harmony among colleagues (Hermann, 2003: 197-198).
METHOD
"Leadership Trait Assessment" utilizes a theoretically driven content analysis of a
leader’s verbal emissions, based on the premise that these verbal emissions are
measurable manifestations of the seven individual characteristics which have, in turn,
determinative impact on leadership style. More specifically, "an assumption is made that
the more frequently leaders use certain words and phrases in their interview responses the
more salient such content is to them...At issue is what percentage of the time when
leaders could exhibit particular words and phrases they are, indeed, used." (Hermann,
1999: 11). Table one summarizes the conceptualization of each trait and the associated
content analysis coding rules (Hermann: 1983; 1999).
(TABLE ONE ABOUT HERE)
Materials for the content analysis comprised the universe of Prime Minister
responses to foreign policy questions in the House of Commons from 1945-2004,
available through the Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates series. The choice of post-1945
British Prime Ministers as the analysis group is fortuitous for several reasons in addition
to those outlined in the introduction. Firstly, it was desirable to select a group of leaders
from the same country, and in this way control for many country-specific variables which
Convention