The Effects of Personality Traits on Being Perceived as a Leader: An Empirical Study in a Private Security Officer Sample

Leaders function as a person who influence followers to contribute toward the performance of their organizations. So, it is critical in organizational efficiency to know who would be perceived as a leader by followers, and which characteristics and behaviours are necessary for leadership. The purpose of this research is to study the effects of personality traits on being perceived as a leader in a private security officer sample, in Turkey which has different cultural characteristics from countries in which early researches about leadership perceptions have been conducted. Two hundred thirty-one private security officers, 32 of them were in administrative positions such as security chief, shift headsman and project leader, participated in this research. Multiple regression technique have been used to show the unique portion of leadership perceptions variance accounted for by a specific traits while statistically controlling for other personality traits. Results indicated that only extroversion was a valid predictor of leadership perceptions for private security officers. Results also indicated that some of the traits, like conscientiousness, openness to experience and neuroticism which predicted leadership perceptions in different cultures, weren’t valid predictors in a Turkish sample.