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Implicit motives and leadership performance revisited: What constitutes the leadership motive pattern?

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Abstract

Previous research suggests that a combination of high need for power, low need for affiliation, and high activity inhibition—the so-called leadership motive pattern—is related to high leader effectiveness. However, when studying this relation, research has mainly relied on a typological approach based on dichotomous configurations of motives instead of using a dimensional approach via regression analysis with interaction terms. Applying the latter approach, we explored separate and interactive effects of need for power, need for affiliation, and activity inhibition on managerial performance. We administered picture story exercises to 70 managers, and found the three-way interaction between predictors to account for increases in income and team goal attainment. Follow-up analyses indicated that managers are most successful when they are high in all three predictors.

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Notes

  1. According to Spangler and House (1991), if the composition of the LMP is to be tested the classical index definition by McClelland and Boyatzis (1982) should be included in the analyses. We therefore adjusted the T score-based definition of McClelland and Boyatzis (1982) to z scores and reran our analyses entering the dichotomous LMP index in the first step of the regressions. Still, the three-way interaction significantly predicted both measures of leader performance.

  2. In the study by McClelland and Boyatzis (1982) all managers considered were males. As in our study, 22.9 % of the participants were females we additionally reran the analyses with gender as a covariate. Findings, however, remained unchanged if gender was entered as the first step of the regression. Results of the subsequent slope difference tests (Dawson and Richter 2006) were also in line with the findings not adjusting for gender. Considering the outcome goal attainment, slope (1) significantly differed from all other slopes, whereas slopes (2), (3), and (4) did not significantly differ from each other. Significant differences between slope (1) and slopes (2) and (3) were found for the outcome developments in a manager’s income. The difference between slope (1) and slope (4) for this outcome was, again, only by tendency significant, while differences between slopes (2), (3), and (4) were not significant. Besides rerunning the analyses controlling for gender, we also examined the contribution of the three-way interaction within the sample of male managers solely. Irrespective of the outcome studied, within this subsample regression weights of the three-way interaction term were as well positive.

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Acknowledgments

The present data was collected as part of the dissertation of the second author. We thank Clemens Schmitt for his assistance in coding the picture story exercises.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Work and Organizational Psychology, Bielefeld University, PO Box 100131, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany

    Barbara Steinmann & Günter W. Maier

  2. A47 Consulting, Munich, Germany

    Stefan L. Dörr

  3. Chair for Experimental Psychology, Motivation, and Affective Neuroscience, Institute of Psychology, Friedrich-Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany

    Oliver C. Schultheiss

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  1. Barbara Steinmann
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  2. Stefan L. Dörr
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  3. Oliver C. Schultheiss
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  4. Günter W. Maier
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Correspondence to Barbara Steinmann.

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Steinmann, B., Dörr, S.L., Schultheiss, O.C. et al. Implicit motives and leadership performance revisited: What constitutes the leadership motive pattern?. Motiv Emot 39, 167–174 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-014-9458-6

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