The role of gender and personality in the implementation of transformational leadership

Over the last three decades, empirical research has been conducted on examining the relationship between transformational leadership and the improvement of school units. Under that context, leader characteristics have been found to be important factors in explaining the implemented leadership style. The purpose of this empirical study is to examine (a) the impact of gender on transformational leadership, (b) the impact of gender on five main personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness and conscientiousness), (c) the impact of these personality traits on the implementation of transformational leadership. The population of this study consists of primary school leaders. The survey included a final sample of 165 school directors from different regions of one country, namely Greece. The appropriate statistical analysis revealed that the implementation of transformational practices by women is higher than the implementation of transformational practices than men, but these differences were not found to be statistically significant. Moreover, differences between male and female directors were observed in all personality traits, while statistically significant differences were only identified in two of these traits (openness and conscientiousness). Additionally, regression analysis revealed that the five personality traits can explain 27.6% of the variance in the factor “transformative leadership”. The most significant dimensions of personality, when examining their impact on “transformative leadership”, were conscientiousness, agreeability and neuroticism. The present study can significantly assist in the appropriate selection and training of school directors.