5.3

JPT Research Digest

Heroism and Leadership Potential of Future CEOs


Pestana, J.V. and Codina, N. (2019). Being Conscious of One's Own Heroism: An Empirical Approach to Analyzing the Leadership Potential of Future CEOs. Frontiers in Psychology/www.frontiersin.org, V. 9, Article 2787

Heroism Science is an emerging transdisciplinary field focused on promoting collective appreciation of the value of every individual's heroic journey from perspectives that may span the natural, social, and health sciences viewed within a humanities context.

The study consisted of 45 student participants enrolled in a master's program for future CEOs, 21 males and 24 females, ranging in age from 22 – 47 (median 26.69). Participants wrote heroic stories in which they were the protagonist and were administered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) assessment and a 51-item questionnaire on Personal Values. Correlations between the three tasks were analyzed.

Nearly half the sample had preferences for Sensing, Thinking, and Judging: 25.7% ESTJ and 20% ISTJ. Of note was an imbalance of the Feeling function in the sample. Of the six types with a Feeling preference either dominant or auxiliary, all 4 Introverted types (INFP, INFJ, ISFP, ISFJ) and one Extraverted type (ENFP) did not appear in the sample at all. ENFJ, ESFJ each had one representation and ESFP had two. A group of executive and leadership students with a typological makeup skewing towards STJ is not new, but the impact a lack of NF may have had on the task to imagine one's self in a heroic story was not addressed in the researchers' analysis, though they did acknowledge the lack of NF in the sample.

A cross correlation of typological preferences and personal values revealed expected results, particularly an emphasis on Conformity (Sensing) and Self-Direction (Thinking); of surprise was a low showing for Tradition considering the predominance of Sensing types. The heroic story analyses applied Campbell's model of the hero's journey; results indicated a concentration of themes in the three main sections of the journey model concentrated on stages that can be considered more concrete compared to more abstract or conceptual or imaginal labels. Again, this result conforms to a predominance of Sensing types in the sample.

The implications of this research suggest that further exploration of the heroic element of leadership can be used to inculcate important self-knowledge, skills and other awareness, through use of the MBTI assessment and qualitative methods, ultimately transcending a pedestrian view of leadership into one of heroic stature.


ARTICLE PERMALINK: https://www.myersbriggs.org/research-and-library/journal-psychological-type/heroism-and-leadership-potential-of-future-ceos/

ARTICLE COMMENTS:

Use the form below to leave comments on this article summary for the research team and/or request a copy of the article by checking the box. Your name and email are required. Thank you.





Give us your thoughts on this article here:


Journal of Psychological Type® Research Digest (JPT-RD) is made available through Myers & Briggs Foundation, worldwide publisher. The editorial team includes Kesstan Blandin, PhD, Yvonne Nelson-Reid, PhD, Logan Abbitt, MLIS, and Purnima Sims.

For inquiries about accessing original articles, contact library@myersbriggs.org.

Myers & Briggs Foundation carries the legacy of Isabel Briggs Myers and the MBTI® instrument through our mission to educate the public about psychological type—including its ethical, meaningful, and practical applications—and to conduct research on psychological type and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) instrument. The JPT-RD, published annually, is a publication that highlights research and ideas in the field of psychological type, the MBTI Instrument, and Jungian thought.

©2020 Center for Applications of Psychological Type, Inc., publisher.

Contact the JPT-RD Editorial Team at research@myersbriggs.org.