Page 14 - Management 19 (2024), številka 1

Jakob Wieland et al. | An Exploration of Traditional Approaches to Leadership

Table 1: Interview Questions
Question(s) and sub questions Approach Explanation
In your opinion, what traits are impor- Trait Trait approach is about traits and personalities; general
tant for a person to be considered a good question to get the discussion on traits going (Lussier and
leader? Achua 2016, chap. 2)
Did you always want to be a leader? Trait Testing dominance; studies show that those wanting to
become leaders are more likely to become ones (Lips and
Keener 2007)
Do you consider yourself an easy-going Trait Extraversion is one of the big five personality traits, which
person (meaning for instance that you research has shown has a strong correlation with leaderlike
like to meet new people)? behaviour (Judge et al. 2002). Being easy-going is a trait of
the extrovert personality.
To what extent do you have the drive to Trait Extraversion is one of the big five personality traits, which
work hard? research has shown has a strong correlation with leaderlike
behaviour (Judge et al. 2002). Working hard is a trait of the
extrovert personality.
Have you tried to change your behaviours Behavioural Behavioural approach – to get the discussion on behaviours
as a leader? If yes, which ones? going (Lussier and Achua 2016, chap. 3)
To what extent is networking important Behavioural Probing the importance of networking as a behaviour that
for your job? is emphasized for leadership success (Lussier and Achua
2016, chap. 3)
How do you ensure that work is accom- Behavioural Probing into job-orientated behaviours (Lussier and Achua
plished in your organization (i.e. that pe- 2016, chap. 3)
ople understand what the task/goal is)?
How do you support and develop the Behavioural Probing into employee-orientation behaviours (Lussier and
people that you work with? Achua 2016, chap. 3)
Do you behave differently while heading a Contingency The basic premise of the contingency approach is that lea-
company compared to heading an NGO? dership is situational – what works for one situation might
not work for another (Lussier and Achua 2016, chap. 2)
What personality traits of yours come in Contingency The basic premise of the contingency approach is that lea-
handy when heading an NGO compared dership is situational – what works for one situation might
to your private company? not work for another (Lussier and Achua 2016, chap. 2)

The course teacher dedicated four-hour ses- Meta, an intern at the Faculty of Management, to
sions to discuss leadership approaches, totalling pilot the questionnaire.1 The interview took place
eight sessions. These sessions, which also includ- on 14 November 2023 and was recorded with
ed student presentations, extended beyond tra- Zoom and transcribed using Microsoft Word AI
ditional approaches to leadership. They covered tools. The respondent agreed to go on the record
topics such as followership, transformational with his full name. No other personal data than
leadership, charismatic leadership, adaptive lead- name, surname and email were collected. The re-
ership, and collaborative leadership. However, search data is stored under a password-protected
we decided to focus on traditional approaches, as folder in a university account with access only by
these were presented earlier in the course. This the authors of this article.
decision allowed us to spend more time reflect- Marilo Meta has an interesting leadership pro-
ing on their relevance and gaining confidence in file. Meta leads an NGO and a private firm, both of
their application. After each session, we formulat- which are based in Albania. He studied computer
ed a set of questions to probe the content of each science and worked in IT as a first job. He then
leadership approach. Table 1 provides the list of moved to work for the Albanian State Police. In
questions we devised under the supervision of the 2016, disillusioned with the state of corruption in
course teacher. Albania, he left the police and founded the NGO
tab 1
The formulation of interview questions was a LDA Europe. The respondent recalled: ‘I wanted
good exercise to actively reflect on the traditional
approaches. Yet we also wanted to test how well 1 Marilo Meta visited the University of Primorska
the questionnaire worked. Therefore, we decided under the AI-NURECC PLUS Transnational Mobility
to pilot the interview questionnaire. The teach- Experience (https://www.uniadrion.net
er of the course suggested that we invite Marilo /portfolio/ai-nurecc-plus/).

14 management 19 (2024) številka 1