Managerial Personality Traits and Leadership Styles: An Economic Perspective from Serbia

This study examines how economic leadership outcomes are shaped by managers’ personality profiles, drawing on the Big Five framework (McCrae & Costa) and established leadership theories (Bass & Avolio). A survey of 160 lower-, middle-, and upper-level managers across Serbia’s public and private sectors employed the Serbian NEO Personality Inventory (Kostić, 2002) and the short Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Principal-component analysis confirmed five personality dimensions—extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness—and three leadership styles—transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire. Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses revealed significant links: extraversion positively predicts transformational leadership, while neuroticism exerts a negative effect. These findings highlight the economic importance of aligning managerial recruitment and training with personality profiles to foster leadership styles that drive organizational performance and competitive advantage.