Assessing Leadership Style: Trait Analysis

William Jefferson Clinton's Leadership Style

understood the constraints under which they had to operate but were
sensitive to what was feasible and doable in the situation at hand. For
each, information was power, and they sought to be at the center of
any information network. Both took advantage of what they per-
ceived to be opportunities in their political environments to build
relationships and viewed politics as requiring consensus and com-
promise. Mutually beneficial solutions were possible in the right cir-
cumstances and with the right negotiating partners. They believed
that being politically effective required flexibility and openness.

Leadership Profile in Context

An important question with any leadership profile centers around

the stability of the traits. Do Clinton's scores remain basically the

same across his tenure in office, when he is being interviewed by the

domestic and foreign press, and when he is discussing different sub-

stantive topics? We can be assured that we are assessing what the

leader is like if there is little change in the scores as the context

changes; at the least, we know that the leader does not seem to be

responding to the situation. It is easier to suggest what a leader is

likely to do politically when the trait scores are more stable; with

changes in scores, the researcher or analyst must consider contextual

factors in deciding both how to influence the leader and what he or

she is likely to do.

A statistical procedure (analysis of variance) can be used to deter-

mine whether Clinton's scores are stable across time, audience, and

topic. Table 13.2 presents the results of such an analysis and the

traits where there were statistically significant differences among the

scores across the various types of context. Of the twenty-one possible

changes (seven traits times three contextual factors), six (29 percent)

were statistically significant. In other words, the leadership profile

described previously for leaders like Clinton is applicable for him in

most circumstances. The statistically significant differences, how-

ever, do amplify the portrait of Clinton as leader and, thus, will be

discussed subsequently in some detail.

Effects of Time Period

A comparison of Clinton's scores during interviews held during his

first administration with those occurring in the second administra-