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Personal traits for inspiring, informal leadership

Many students graduating in higher education will achieve a managerial or professional position, with leadership qualities being highly important. The need to reflect on leadership as an important developmental goal in higher education is highlighted by pointing out that many curricula, especially in the managerial, organisational and economic domain, include specific courses on leadership. It seems that some of our thinking on leadership needs revision. According to Kellerman, leaders’ ability to connect to followers is paramount to gain and remain in power. Dutch management scholar Manfred Kets de Vries (2004) underlines that the main responsibility of a leader is to envision and inspire. In this chapter we will examine the role of personality and personal values in the ability of informal leaders to inspire other team members. In the first section we will elaborate on transformational leadership and shared leadership. In the next, we will link these forms of leadership to personality and personal values. In the third section the findings of our empirical study will be discussed. We conclude with the implications of our study for leadership practice and the scholarly field of leadership. From an educational point of view our findings are important. The results shed additional light on the importance of personality traits on leadership, and informal leadership in particular. As leadership is an important phenomenon in society and working life, (under)graduates can be assisted in understanding and developing it. But in the context of this book it should be highlighted that transformational leadership is highly relevant in knowledge innovation (García-Morales et al., 2012), which is a core issue in higher education. Consequently, inspiring others is relevant, because group work is commonly used in higher education. Understanding group dynamics within student teams, informal leadership specifically, can help lecturers to explain and discuss effective and ineffective group work. In our opinion, the results of this study offer interesting evidence-based insights to reflect on and develop those personal characteristics that can be important for informal leadership effectiveness.

Does excellence matter?

Personality traits of expert teachers of students with behavioural problems: a review and classification of the literature

Teaching students with behavioural problems is a challenge for many teachers but other teachers are able to bring out the best in these students. Much research has been done to find out what differentiates expert teachers from their less skilled colleagues. Recent evidence points to personality as an underlying core factor influencing teacher performance. This study reviewed the literature on the personality traits of expert teachers of students with behavioural problems. The studies selected report their key thoughts,feelings, and behaviours, which according to trait theory stem from personality. Two independent raters classified the personality variables according to the dimensions of the Five Factor Model of personality: Extraversion; Agreeableness; Conscientiousness; Neuroticism; and Openness to Experience. The evidenceindicates that a teacher’s ability to teach students with behavioural problems increases with his/her levels in four of the five personality factors. No variables relating to Neuroticism were reported in the literature. Implications for follow-up research are discussed.

Online self-assessment as a quality assurance tool in higher professional education

Theme: Quality Assurance in Higher Education An online tool was developed for (potential) students to assess the congruence between the characteristics of an educational program and student preferences (Butter & Van Raalten, 2010)

Determinants of success: a longitudinal study in higher professional education

In EU-verband zijn door overheden afspraken gemaakt om het aantal hoger opgeleiden binnen hun beroepsbevolking te verhogen. Dit in een tijd van kleinere budgetten, lagere slagingspercentages en oplopende studieduur. Rutger Kappe achterhaalde de factoren die van invloed zijn op enerzijds het succesvol afronden van een opleiding en anderzijds het latere succes op de arbeidsmarkt. Zijn onderzoek toont aan dat bepaalde persoonskenmerken gerelateerd zijn aan studie- en werksucces. Kappe onderzocht de rol van intelligentie, persoonlijkheid, motivatie en leerstijlen voor studiesucces en vond dat het persoonlijkheidskenmerk ‘consciëntieusheid’ het best de hoogte van behaalde studiecijfers en de tijd die studenten over hun studie doen voorspelt, gevolgd door intelligentie en motivatie. Voor werksucces blijken deze kenmerken ook voorspellende waarde te hebben. Tevens zijn competenties van belang en blijken eerdere studieprestaties (cijfers) een minder belangrijke rol te spelen. Kappe geeft adviezen aan instellingen en studenten hoe zij hun kans op succes kunnen vergroten door bepaalde interventies (timemanagement, selectie) en curriculumontwikkeling

Distinguishing happiness and meaning in life from depressive symptoms: A GWAS-by-subtraction study in the UK Biobank

Hedonic (happiness) and eudaimonic (meaning in life) well-being are negatively related to depressive symptoms. Genetic variants play a role in this association, reflected in substantial genetic correlations. We investigated the overlap and differences between well-being and depressive symptoms, using results of Genome-Wide Association studies (GWAS) in UK Biobank. Subtracting GWAS summary statistics of depressive symptoms from those of happiness and meaning in life, we obtained GWASs of respectively “pure” happiness (neffective = 216,497) and “pure” meaning (neffective = 102,300). For both, we identified one genome-wide significant SNP (rs1078141 and rs79520962, respectively). After subtraction, SNP heritability reduced from 6.3% to 3.3% for pure happiness and from 6.2% to 4.2% for pure meaning. The genetic correlation between the well-being measures reduced from 0.78 to 0.65. Pure happiness and pure meaning became genetically unrelated to traits strongly associated with depressive symptoms, including loneliness, and psychiatric disorders. For other traits, including ADHD, educational attainment, and smoking, the genetic correlations of well-being versus pure well-being changed substantially. GWAS-by-subtraction allowed us to investigate the genetic variance of well-being unrelated to depressive symptoms. Genetic correlations with different traits led to new insights about this unique part of well-being. Our results can be used as a starting point to test causal relationships with other variables, and design future well-being interventions.