Investigating Stereotypes with Regard to Leadership in Africa: An Exploratory Study in Kenya

C. A. Arnolds
(Nelson Mandela MetropolitanUniversity, South Africa)

Abstract: Leadership failure is often advanced as the reason for the lack of socio-economic advancement on the African continent. It is often said that personality traits such as unbridled narcissistic self-love, Machiavellian manipulation and power hunger, and the behaviors that emanate from them, are the drivers of the inability of African leaders to create environments conducive to socio-economic growth that would reduce poverty in Africa. Many of the afore-mentioned are perceptions and speculation about leadership in Africa. No empirical studies have as yet been done to provide scientific proof of these speculations. The present study therefore sought to find scientific proof for the truthfulness or otherwise of these stereotypes. The study was conducted on a sample of 256 senior managers drawn from 53 public enterprises in Kenya. The study investigated the relationship between personality traits and leadership styles, on the one hand, and the performance intent of these managers, on the other hand. The empirical results showed that Kenyan public enterprise managers exhibited high levels of transformational leadership style and feminine personality traits, as well as low levels of narcissistic personality traits. The results also revealed that transformational leadership style and feminine personality traits were positively related, while narcissistic personality traits were negatively related to the job performance intent of these managers.

Key words: leadership personality and style; performance intent; public enterprises

JEL codes: H83, Z00