Role of Mental Complexity and Personality in Leadership

Abstract

In the world of organizations, the role of leaders is particularly important, considering that their personalities, behaviour and performance characteristics are relevant not only from their own point of view, but also for the development of the staff and the processes of the whole organization. The 21st century has brought changes and new challenges in the everyday life of employees, and these new challenges are especially noticeable in the business sector and in the lives of leaders. The aim of this study was to explore how mental complexity and personality characteristics are related to attitudes and thinking about leadership. Another goal was to develop a quantitative method for testing mental complexity. In order to assess our hypotheses we applied a quantitative research method (N = 358) and used a Mental Complexity Questionnaire (27 items, 3 scales: Social Complexity Scale, Individual Complexity Scale and Inter-Individual Complexity Scale) (Répáczki, 2014).