Assessing Leadership Style: Trait Analysis

Saddam Hussein's Leadership Style

across time and audience suggest that he may appear more dogmatic
and inflexible in the international arena and with regard to Iraq's
position in the world in the aftermath of the Gulf War and UN
inspections than is actually the case. He is capable of much more
flexibility than these scores imply, given his scores for domestic press
interviews across time from 1979 to 1990. Indeed, these latter scores
would be considered high when compared with the conceptual com-
plexity of other Middle Eastern leaders and eighty-seven heads of
state (see table 17.1). The data intimate that, when Hussein wants or
believes he needs more information in order to decide what to do or
to maintain his power and influence, he can be quite complex and
pragmatic. When, however, he has made up his mind or believes he
is backed into a corner, his rhetoric will become very principled and

TABLE 17.2. HUSSEIN'S SCORES IN CONTEXT (STATISTICALLY
SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES)
Characteristic
Time
Conceptual complexity

Audience
Conceptual complexity
Topic
Nationalism

Need for power

Distrust of others

Means

Pre-Iran-Iraq War = .50

Iran-Iraq War period = .55

Gulf War period = .27

Domestic = .54

International = .44

Relations with Arabs = .58

Relations with non- Arabs = .58

Kurds = .80

Domestic politics = .70

Iran-Iraq War = .76

Gulf War = .72

Relations with Arabs = .69

Relations with non- Arabs = .64

Kurds = .53

Domestic Politics = .39

Iran-Iraq War = .65

Gulf War = .39

Relations with Arabs = .44

Relations with non-Arabs = .49

Kurds = .65

Domestic politics = .39

Iran-Iraq War = .66

Gulf War = .68