Leader appeal, leader performance, and the motive profiles of leaders and followers: A study of American presidents and elections

Abstract

Three leader trait and leader-follower interaction models of leader appeal and leader performance are evaluated with data about he motive profiles of American presidents and American society, in both cases measured at a distance. Presidential ppeal, defined in terms of electoral success, is significantly correlated with the congruence or match between the president's motive profile and that of his contemporary society. In contrast, presidential greatness, as rated by historians, as well as several important outcomes involving war and peace are associated with certain of the president's motives by themselves, but not with president-society congruence. What is a great leader? What is a popular leader? Are they the same? Are they the result of the same or different factors? Our naive belief in the "great person " theory of leadership, that the person shapes events and the leader creates his or her own great-ness, has long been challenged by scholars from diverse disci-plines who analyze leadership appeal and performance into broad impersonal forces and social-structural f ctors. Yet in the real world of politics, the factor of personal appeal or having (i