Indonesian Implicit Leadership Theory: Typical and Positive Leadership Prototypes for Indonesian Millennials

Abstract

Leadership studies in Indonesia tend to discuss the way leadership affects individual attitudes and behavior as well as team effectiveness. However, a more contextual and recent approach study in understanding leadership remains underdeveloped. As a preliminary, this study aims to explore the concept of Indonesia's leadership based on local perspectives by taking into account Implicit Leadership Theory. Data were gathered by involving 404 millennials (63,6% female, 36,4% male) using an open-ended question namely "Describe three characteristics of a leader" and two scales asking participants' perception about how typical and effective each leaders' characteristic count for leadership. A total of 1159 responses were analyzed using thematic analysis and demonstrated four characteristics depicting prototypes of leaders namely moral (41,07%), generally-competent (29,42%), charismatic (20,79%), conscientious (8,71%). A one-way ANOVA was also conducted to compare the effect of leader's prototypes on perception of typicality and effectiveness of leadership. There was a significant effect of leadership prototypes on perception of typical leadership at the p<.05 level for the three conditions for each of perception about how typical and effective the prototypes reflect leadership. However, at the level of prototypes, no differences were found in perceiving which prototypes were considered as more typical and effective. The descriptive scores of each prototype indicates all of the prototypes were perceived as high in reflecting typicality and effectiveness in leadership. In conclusion, all leadership prototypes emerged from the responses were perceived as both typical and effective by the participants.

Creativity and leadership

“…On the one hand, according to many authors, leadership is understood as a set of personality traits that includes intelligence, cooperation, integrity, taking the initiative, endurance, self-confidence, decisiveness, tolerance, openness, extraversion, sociability, etc. (A'yuninnisa, Haqqi, Rusli & Puteri, 2020;Bitel, 1997;French & Raven, 1962;Maxvell, 2001;Northouse, 2007). However, with the constantly changing requirements of contemporary society, the characteristics of successful leadership are changing as well.…”

“…In addition to this, some authors single out personality traits that do not contribute to successful leadership, such as insecurity, disorganization, inflexibility, rigidity in thinking, intolerance, perfectionism, unwillingness to take risks, authoritarianism, destructiveness, etc. (A'yuninnisa, Haqqi, Rusli & Puteri, 2020;Grubić Nešić, 2008;North-Samardzic & Crawford, 2005).…”

“…In the last two decades, it has been shown that intelligence, self-confidence, decisiveness, integrity and sociability represent the key characteristics of a successful leader (A'yuninnisa, Haqqi, Rusli & Puteri, 2020;Bitel, 1997;French & Raven, 1962;Maxvell, 2001;Northouse, 2007). Moreover, a study by Judge and collaborators, which analyzed the articles dealing with the relationship between "big five" personality traits and leadership published in the period between 1967 and 1998, showed that extraversion and openness are all traits of an effective leader (Judge, Bono, Illies & Gerhardt, 2002).…”