Analysis of Leaders among High-School Seniors

Abstract

Literature on the subject of leadership and leader qualities may be of two kinds. The older studies are philosophical treatises; occa sionally, a modern piece of work follows this same method wherein the writer describes those characteristics which, in his opinion, have made leaders of certain individuals. Usually such descriptions are built around persons of such outstanding renown that their designation as leaders need not be questioned. This sort of analysis has its place in inspira tional literature, but recently it has been re placed to a great extent by studies which may be grouped, in general, as statistical analyses. In this type of study, so-called leaders are compared with other members of their groups; the quantitative measures of various qualities are used as bases for the comparison. Studies of the latter type may be less helpful to would-be leaders seeking for inspiration, but they come nearer to valid analyses of the qualifications observed in leaders. Most of the statistical studies of leadership use either one or both of two methods. After measures are secured for the entire group in specific characteristics, these scores are cor related with a quantitative measure of lead ership. The correlation coefficient, even if high, does not mean necessarily that the two qualities are causally related. They may be interrelated but caused by an entirely differ ent and unmeasured quality. As with other studies using the correlational method, there is the temptation to place too much faith in the relationship found. The procedure is val uable, however, in a more or less theoretical discussion of the relationship between various traits, as intelligence, social ability, persist ence, etc., and leadership as measured in par ticular studies. The fallacy lies in the fact that the measure of leadership is not always valid and even when validated for a partic ular group or a particular type of activity it may not be valid for generalizations regard ing leadership as a general trait. A second method used sometimes in con junction with the first, and sometimes alone, is that of critical ratios. After measures are secured for leaders and their group members in the trait or traits to be studied in relation