management 19 (2024) številka 1 11 Introduction Leadership is a skill and competence with uni - versal importance in people’s lives. Anybody who finds themselves in a position to guide and re - ward others, exercises leadership to some degree. Manifesting itself in various forms, whether at home, at the workplace, or in people’s free time, leadership has universal significance. Therefore, it is not surprising it is taught in various courses around the world, including the Master’s degree of Management at the University of Primorska in Slovenia. The purpose of this article is to explore the tra - ditional approaches to leadership studies, namely the trait approach, the behavioural approach, and the contingency approach (Lussier and Achua 2016; Yukl 2010). These three approaches are of - ten referred to as the mainstream approaches to Jakob Wieland Erasmus student at the Faculty of Management, University of Primorska jakob.wieland@uni-wuppertal.de Weronika Busek Erasmus student at the Faculty of Management, University of Primorska weronika.busek2@gmail.com Błażej Nosal Erasmus student at the Faculty of Management, University of Primorska blazej.nosal@edu.uekat.pl Andreja Pegan Faculty of Management, University of Primorska andreja.pegan@fm-kp.si An Exploration of Traditional Approaches to Leadership: Traits, Behaviours and Contingency In this article, we explore the traditional theories of leadership, name - ly the trait, behavioural and contingency approaches. Our aim is to understand the practice of leadership research and the applicability of leadership theory approaches. To achieve this, we devise an interview questionnaire to explore leadership traits, behaviours and contingency variables. We then pilot the questionnaire by conducting an interview. We find that the traditional approaches to leadership studies are rele - vant to understand leadership. However, we note that the distinction be - tween trait, behaviour and contingency approaches is not as clear cut as presented in core leadership textbooks. The piloting process establishes that the interview questionnaire is suitable for exploring leadership and can be applied in bachelor’s and master’s theses. Keywords: management, leadership, contingency, behaviour, traits, stu - dent research Raziskovanje vodenja s tradicionalnimi modeli in teorijami: model osebne značilnosti, vedenjska teorija in situacijska teorija vodenja Članek obravnava tradicionalne modele in teorije vodenja, in sicer mo - del osebne značilnosti, vedenjsko teorijo ter situacijsko teorijo. Članek razvije razumevanje o raziskovalni praksi vodenja z aplikacijo tradicio - nalnih modelov in teorij vodenja. V ta namen oblikujemo vprašalnik za raziskovanje osebnih značilnosti, vedenja in situacijskih spremenljivk vodenja. Vprašalnik nato preizkusimo z izvedbo pilotnega intervjuja. Ugotavljamo, da so tradicionalni pristopi še vedno pomembni in aktual - ni za razumevanje vodenja. Hkrati ugotavljamo, da se teme prepletajo in da je včasih težko razmejiti tematike tradicionalnih modelov ter teorij. V diskusiji zaključimo, da je vprašalnik primeren za raziskovanje vodenja na diplomski in magistrski ravni. Ključne besede: management, vodenje, situacijska teorija, vedenjska teo - rija, osebne značilnosti, študentsko raziskovanje https://doi.org/10.26493/1854-4231.19.11-17 Jakob Wieland et al. | An Exploration of Traditional Approaches to Leadership 12 management 19 (2024) številka 1 leadership, being the first and, consequently, the longest in use for understanding leadership (Cre - vani et al. 2010). Trait approaches help us comprehend how personality affects leadership, while behaviour - al approaches shed light on actions that drive leadership success. Contingency theories em - phasize the importance of adapting leadership styles to various situations, enabling leaders to make informed decisions that suit the needs of their teams and organizations. While collabora - tive work and digitalization are reshaping the landscape of leadership studies and practice, these three approaches serve as the foundation for understanding newer approaches to leader - ship and developing competent and adaptable leaders in today’s diverse and dynamic work en - vironments. The aim of this article is to deepen our under - standing of traditional leadership approaches by developing an interview questionnaire. A second - ary aim is to pilot the questionnaire through an interview and observe how well it captures in - formation about leaders’ ways of thinking about leadership. In doing so, we provide an interview protocol for bachelor’s and master’s students interested in researching leadership from the standpoint of trait, behaviour, and contingency theories. The first part of the article is a review and ana - lytical framework where we describe how leader - ship has been defined and outline the traditional approaches for studying leadership based on two main leadership textbooks (Lussier and Achua 2016; Yukl 2010). The second part of the article is an application where we devise a qualitative questionnaire based on the theory presented and then apply it in practice through a pilot in - terview. Finally, in the conclusion, we provide a reflection on the exercise. These steps allow us to understand the applicability of leadership theory approaches, and deepen comprehension of those approaches to leadership studies. Theoretical Framework: Leadership Approaches In leadership research, there are various ap - proaches and definitions. Leadership can be understood as ‘the ability of an individual to in - fluence, motivate, and enable others to contrib - ute toward the effectiveness and success of the organization’ (House et al. 1999, 184). It involves an individual, referred to as the leader, and oth - ers, known as followers. The leader guides, influ - ences, motivates, and inspires the followers to achieve a common goal effectively and efficiently. Following Burns (1978), leadership can also be understood as an engagement action between people and across all spheres and levels of socie - ty. As such, leadership and leaders cannot be sep - arated from followers and the context in which leadership is situated. Following Lussier and Achua, leadership is defined as ‘the influencing process of leaders and followers to achieve organizational objectives through change’ (Lussier and Achua 2010, 6). Leadership encompasses the relationships be - tween leaders and followers, as well as individuals and groups. It also involves influencing others, achieving organizational objectives such as goals and visions, and facilitating change. These objec - tives are known as the five key elements of leader - ship: influence, organizational objectives, people, change, and leaders-followers (Lussier and Achua 2010, chap. 1). Trait Approach The trait approach encompasses the traits, skills, and values of individual leaders (Yukl 2010, chap. 6). Since the early 1990s, significant progress has been made in the development of personality theory and traits. One notable development is the refinement of the ‘big five’ personality mod - el, which distinguishes between the following di - mensions: surgency, agreeableness, adjustment, conscientiousness, and openness. Each personal - ity dimension encompasses various traits, man - ifested with varying degrees of intensity among individuals. The model correlates with leader - ship, as certain traits are often particularly pro - nounced in leaders. For instance, research shows that dominance or the desire to assert oneself increases the likelihood of someone becoming a leader (Lips and Keener 2007). It is essential to note that not all leaders possess the same traits. Nevertheless, there are specific traits that could indicate effective leader - ship. According to research, these traits include dominance, high energy, internal locus of con - trol, integrity, flexibility, self-confidence, stabili - ty, intelligence, and sensitivity to others (Lussier and Achua 2010, chap. 2). McClelland developed the achievement motivation theory (1987, chap. 7), which identifies three primary needs. The the - ory aims to explain or predict the behaviours of leaders based on their needs for achievement, power, and affiliation (Lussier and Achua 2010, chap. 1). In addition, the following skills are Jakob Wieland et al. | An Exploration of Traditional Approaches to Leadership management 19 (2024) številka 1 13 associated with effective leadership: technical skills, interpersonal skills, and conceptual skills (Yukl 2010, chap. 6). Technical skills involve knowledge of methods, processes, and relevant tools. Interpersonal skills refer to understanding the feelings of others, knowing their motives, and communicating clearly and effectively. Conceptu - al skills encompass logical thinking, creativity for generating new ideas and problem-solving, antic - ipating changes and events, and analysing trends to identify opportunities. Behavioural Approach Another leadership approach is the behaviour approach, which was proposed by researchers in the 1950s as a response to the traits approach. This approach proposes focusing on observing and analysing how leaders actually manage their activities and how they behave (Yukl 2010, chap. 1). Behaviours are often connected and based on specific traits which make up leadership style (Lussier and Achua 2010, chap. 1). The behavioural approach aims to identify categories of behaviours important for effective leadership and measures them based on how often managers or leaders use them. Various categories of effective leadership behaviours ex - ist (Yukl 2010, chap. 3; Burns 1978; Bass 1985). Differently-oriented behaviours are usually de - scribed as (Yukl 2010, chap. 3): • Task-Oriented (or Job-Oriented) – conta - ins those behaviours that relate to ensuring that the work is done in an appropriate way. • Relations-Oriented – consists of behaviours connected with relationships with employ - ees such as helping with solving problems, consulting, considering their opinions and treating them equally. • Change-Oriented – focuses on the envi - ronment and understanding its conditions to be able to adapt to ongoing changes. It requires openness to innovations and ap - plying changes in the company’s strategies, processes and products. • External Leadership – encompasses activ - ities and behaviours of leaders in contact with people outside of the organization, such as networking, environmental/exter - nal scanning and representing. Contingency Approach Both trait and behavioural leadership theories attempt to find an optimal leadership style in all situations. Therefore, they are called univer - sal theories. In the 1960s, it became clear that there was no one best leadership style that suited all situations (Lussier and Achua 2016, chap 2). The most effective leadership behaviour often depends on the situation. As a result, the lead - ership paradigm shifted toward contingency the - ory. Contingency leadership theory attempts to explain appropriate leadership styles based on the leader, followers, and the situation. In other words, given situational variables, what charac - teristics and/or behaviours will lead to leadership success? Yukl (2010) illustrates various models of con - tingency leadership theories. These include: • Leader Effectiveness – this model suggests that the effectiveness of a leader can be eva - luated by considering the performance of employees. • Leadership Continuum Theory – according to this theory, leadership styles are placed on a continuum, taking into account the authority and freedom existing between the leader and subordinates. • Path-Goal Theory – this theory proposes that leaders should influence employees’ perceptions of their goals and guide them along the paths toward goal attainment. • Normative Theory – this theory provides guidance on when a manager should take charge or delegate decision-making author - ity to the group. The contingency theory paradigm emphasizes the importance of situational factors, including the type of work performed, the external envi - ronment, and characteristics of followers. One aspect of this research is to find out the extent to which leadership efforts are the same or different given various organizations, management levels and cultures. Method The traditional approaches to leadership outlined in the previous section are part of many univer - sity leadership courses worldwide. The first three co-authors of this article are master’s Erasmus students at the Faculty of Management of the University of Primorska, where we followed the course Leadership for 8 weeks, between October and November 2023. As part of this course, we de - cided to strengthen our knowledge of traditional approaches by developing an interview question - naire probing into leadership approaches. Jakob Wieland et al. | An Exploration of Traditional Approaches to Leadership 14 management 19 (2024) številka 1 The course teacher dedicated four-hour ses - sions to discuss leadership approaches, totalling eight sessions. These sessions, which also includ - ed student presentations, extended beyond tra - ditional approaches to leadership. They covered topics such as followership, transformational leadership, charismatic leadership, adaptive lead - ership, and collaborative leadership. However, we decided to focus on traditional approaches, as these were presented earlier in the course. This decision allowed us to spend more time reflect - ing on their relevance and gaining confidence in their application. After each session, we formulat - ed a set of questions to probe the content of each leadership approach. Table 1 provides the list of questions we devised under the supervision of the course teacher. The formulation of interview questions was a good exercise to actively reflect on the traditional approaches. Yet we also wanted to test how well the questionnaire worked. Therefore, we decided to pilot the interview questionnaire. The teach - er of the course suggested that we invite Marilo tab 1 Meta, an intern at the Faculty of Management, to pilot the questionnaire.1 The interview took place on 14 November 2023 and was recorded with Zoom and transcribed using Microsoft Word AI tools. The respondent agreed to go on the record with his full name. No other personal data than name, surname and email were collected. The re - search data is stored under a password-protected folder in a university account with access only by the authors of this article. Marilo Meta has an interesting leadership pro - file. Meta leads an NGO and a private firm, both of which are based in Albania. He studied computer science and worked in IT as a first job. He then moved to work for the Albanian State Police. In 2016, disillusioned with the state of corruption in Albania, he left the police and founded the NGO LDA Europe. The respondent recalled: ‘I wanted 1 Marilo Meta visited the University of Primorska under the AI-NURECC PLUS Transnational Mobility Experience ( https://www.uniadrion.net /portfolio/ai-nurecc-plus/). Table 1: Interview Questions Question(s) and sub questions Approach Explanation In your opinion, what traits are impor - tant for a person to be considered a good leader? Trait Trait approach is about traits and personalities; general question to get the discussion on traits going (Lussier and 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 person (meaning for instance that you like to meet new people)? Trait Extraversion is one of the big five personality traits, which research has shown has a strong correlation with leaderlike behaviour (Judge et al. 2002). Being easy-going is a trait of the extrovert personality. To what extent do you have the drive to work hard? Trait Extraversion is one of the big five personality traits, which 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 as a leader? If yes, which ones? Behavioural Behavioural approach – to get the discussion on behaviours going (Lussier and Achua 2016, chap. 3) To what extent is networking important for your job? Behavioural Probing the importance of networking as a behaviour that is emphasized for leadership success (Lussier and Achua 2016, chap. 3) How do you ensure that work is accom- plished in your organization (i.e. that pe- ople understand what the task/goal is)? Behavioural Probing into job-orientated behaviours (Lussier and Achua 2016, chap. 3) How do you support and develop the people that you work with? Behavioural Probing into employee-orientation behaviours (Lussier and Achua 2016, chap. 3) Do you behave differently while heading a company compared to heading an NGO? Contingency The basic premise of the contingency approach is that lea- 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 handy when heading an NGO compared to your private company? Contingency The basic premise of the contingency approach is that lea- dership is situational – what works for one situation might not work for another (Lussier and Achua 2016, chap. 2) Jakob Wieland et al. | An Exploration of Traditional Approaches to Leadership management 19 (2024) številka 1 15 to give more to the community, [...] to give more opportunities.’2 In the NGO there are at least 18 volunteers. LDA Europe provides a variety of pro - grammes, trainings, workshops and conferences to develop young people and give them work op - portunities. After founding the NGO, he moved to the USA, working for Open Government Part - nership. Based on this experience he founded his own business, the consultancy LDA Digital Solu - tions. There are five employees in the firm, which crafts customer relationship management (CRM) transformations and supports the implementa - tion of Salesforce technologies. Interview Observations and Findings First, we discussed traits and personality. On the questions of traits, the interviewee stressed the importance of vision, empathy, and inclusiveness in effective leadership. A visionary approach that includes the team’s ideas is crucial for success. In his view, empathy and inclusiveness contrib - ute to a positive work environment, considering team members’ needs and fostering creativity. Charisma and creativity were also noted as es - sential, creating motivation and a dynamic work - place culture. When asked about personal aspirations to - wards leadership, the interviewee shared an an - ecdote. As a young person, the interviewee had dreamt of becoming an astronaut or a president and making impactful changes in the world. This anecdote supports the theory that dominance, or the assertiveness of a person, is a relevant trait in predicting someone becoming a leader (Lips and Keener 2007). In terms of personality, the interviewee admit - ted that his inclination towards being easy-going and sociable changed over time. While working in the USA, a more extroverted persona devel - oped through constant engagement with differ - ent people and networks, and under the influ - ence of the American culture. Despite not being a born extrovert, the interviewee acknowledged the value of networking in professional growth, expressing a wish to have embraced it earlier. Based on this answer we can conclude that traits (e.g. extroversion) and behaviours (e.g. network - ing) are connected as postulated in leadership approaches. The discussion then delved into the impor - tance of hard work and accomplishments. The 2 Interview with Marilo Meta, Koper, 9 November, 2023. interviewee underscored the transformation in motivation when transitioning from an employ - ee to a leader and owner. As a leader, every goal achieved brings the individual closer to their vi - sion, serving as a self-rewarding mechanism. The drive to work hard was emphasized, portraying the leader’s commitment to realizing their goals and creating a meaningful impact. Next, we asked about leadership behaviours. According to the answers, we found it is difficult to change behaviour as a leader. For instance, ac - cording to the interviewee, different behaviours are expected from the leader of an NGO than from the leader of a private company. The inter - viewee described how when he opened his private company, he adopted the same leadership style (openness) as in the NGO. This did not work very well because when he behaved similarly to how he did in the NGO, it was taken as a weakness by the employees. This shows the connection between behaviour and contingency approaches, namely, that context (contingency approaches) informs effective leadership behaviours, as described in the literature. Another relevant case the interviewee pre - sented to us was the importance of networking in his business and NGO because that is the way to get new ideas, opportunities, and a chance to cre - ate cooperative relationships, personal growth, or growing confidence. This example shows that some behaviours, notably networking, are effec - tive in both the firm and non-profit working en - vironments. To ensure that the work is accomplished in the organization the interviewee drew attention to such aspects as defining tasks, using SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals, and properly dedicating the tasks to the right person based on their qualifica - tions or even their interests. These descriptions broadly meet the commonly discussed behav - iours in the literature as described in the theo - retical section. When it comes to supporting and developing people, the interviewee mentioned that the most important thing is to communicate effectively. Furthermore, he suggested creating a bond with employees and organizing social activities to in - crease collaboration. Additionally, our interviewee described pay - ing a lot of attention to the motivation of his employees, which we did not include in the in - terview questionnaire. He presented the differ - ence between motivating employees in a private Jakob Wieland et al. | An Exploration of Traditional Approaches to Leadership 16 management 19 (2024) številka 1 company and NGO members. In the NGO, it is easier to motivate members because the mem - bers join with the wish to contribute to the activ - ities of a non-profit. Nonetheless, he explained that motivation is also needed in NGOs as it can grow its reach. For this purpose, the members of the NGOs are given opportunities to attend train - ings and conferences. In the private company the leader needs to be more decisive and make em - ployees feel their responsibilities, which means even letting people go if they do not perform their job properly. The respondent’s answers highlight the chal - lenges of adapting leadership behaviours in dif - ferent organizational contexts. In addition, they underscore the difficulty of changing leadership styles, as evidenced by the interviewee’s expe - rience transitioning from leading an NGO to a private company. The discussion emphasizes the influence of context, with the interviewee find - ing that certain behaviours, such as networking, are effective across both business and non-profit environments. The importance of effective com - munication, task definition, and employee mo - tivation are also highlighted, emphasizing the multifaceted nature of leadership behaviours and the need for adaptability based on specific organ - izational requirements and circumstances. Having explored the intricacies of leadership behaviour within the context of the interviewee’s responses, the transition to the contingency ap - proach became the subsequent focus. While the initial discussions shed light on aspects related to the broader context of leadership, the final section of the interview protocol was specifically dedicat - ed to probing the contingency approach. During this phase, the interviewee reiterated that leader - ship manifests differently in the NGO when com - pared to the private firm. In the realm of NGOs, the emphasis shifts towards a more open leader - ship behaviour, fostering greater flexibility and independent action among NGO members. The leaders within these organizations rely to a greater extent on the motivation of their members, draw - ing empowerment from the overarching mission and activities. Overall, these questions underline that leaders have to engage in many different be - haviours and that the exercise of some of these behaviours will depend on the situation at hand. Discussion Our investigation provided us with several in - sights and lessons on how to explore leadership in organizations. We found that the leadership approaches – as described in core leadership text - books (e.g. Yukl 2010; Lussier and Achua 2010), are relevant to understanding how leaders think about their leadership behaviour. However, dis - tinguishing traits from behaviours and context proved to be tricky at times. For instance, the pi - lot of our interview questionnaire revealed that respondents are likely to link specific traits to behaviours and behaviours to specific situations. Leadership research, therefore, needs to align trait, behaviour and context approaches. Our interview questionnaire included 13 ques - tions to operationalize the traditional approach - es to leadership. The concepts underlying these approaches are complex, have many dimensions and would require a much more elaborate inter - view questionnaire than the one applied here. For instance, we have measured extraversion with two questions, but the extrovert personality has more than two traits and these traits would re - quire a more detailed questionnaire, for instance also using a survey. Alternatively, one could fo - cus on writing an article and conducting research only on a selected personality (for instance, ex - troversion) or a selected behaviour (for instance, networking). However, the purpose here was to apply our knowledge from the lectures to im - prove our understanding of the leadership theo - ries. We do not make any new knowledge claims. In fact, we only interviewed one person, which even for qualitative studies, is an insufficient number to uncover patterns from the data. For more general findings, we would need to replicate our interview in more instances. Moreover, anybody who wishes to use our in - terview protocol should be aware that it is not a comprehensive tool. For instance, in our pilot, the interview respondent talked about motivat - ing followers (employees and NGO members/vol - unteers) and his relationship (exchanges) with followers. None of our interview questions spe - cifically probed these aspects. Hence, we would recommend adding at least one additional sec - tion that deals with followers and how they can be motivated. Conclusion The approaches operationalized here for studying leadership are traditional approaches, used since the early days of leadership studies. They are based on an understanding of leadership as the traits and behaviours of leaders as individuals. As seen in the article, these traditional approach - es can be easily applied to describe some basic Jakob Wieland et al. | An Exploration of Traditional Approaches to Leadership management 19 (2024) številka 1 17 features of leadership and to conduct research. However, leadership is also far more complex than traits and behaviours. More and more em - phasis is given to followers and how they interact with leaders to drive organizational change. Finally, today, leadership is increasingly per - formed in teams and on digital platforms, which has given rise to terms such as collaborative or distributed leadership (Crevani, Lindgren, and Packendorff 2010) and digital leadership (She - ninger 2019). Neither the collaborative, follow - ership, nor digital approaches to leadership have been studied in this article. However, modern organizations often work collaboratively, con - sider the role of followers and operate in digital spaces. 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