Leadership in Innovators and Defenders: The Role of Cognitive Personality Styles

Abstract

This research is based on a mixed strategic typology, combining innovators of Miller and Roth (1994, “A Taxonomy of Manufacturing Strategies,” Management Science, 40 (3), 285–304) and defenders of Miles et al. (1978, “Organizational Strategy, Structure and Process,” Academy of Management Review, 3, 546–562) and supported by the perception–evaluation personality model of Jung (1923, Psychological Types, London, Routledge & Kegan). Leadership model having five underlying constructs—group cohesion, intellectual flexibility, leader cognitive styles, leadership styles and leadership roles—is identified and studied. At first, respondent firms from various sectors are classified as innovators and defenders. Second, the constructs are empirically tested on them. Important findings suggest that innovators have intuitive-feeling leaders and defenders have sensing-thinking leaders, two of the four personality types proposed by Jung (1923). It has also been found that innovators are higher in the degree of intellectual adjustment; in the idea generation and nurturant phase leaders exhibit intuitive-feeling personality style; concept creators also exhibit the same. These findings may be used in organizations for leadership building, finding out best candidate job-fit and organization-fit during recruitment, and also for training and development of the leaders.