AN ANALYSIS OF PERSONALITY TRAITS AND LEADERSHIP PERFORMANCE AT THE UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY

Abstract

To maintain its maritime advantage, the Navy must select and develop effective leaders. Organizations widely use information on personality traits of employees to help identify and develop leaders. In this thesis, I investigate whether extroverts are more likely to become leaders, and whether extroverts make better leaders. I use data on U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen who complete the Myer Briggs Test Indicator (MBTI) for personality type awareness. In their senior year, midshipmen have opportunities to be selected for leadership positions in the Brigade. Using data on senior midshipmen who graduated from USNA between 2005 and 2010, I estimate multivariate models to analyze the impact of extroversion on (a) selection for a leadership position and (b) leadership performance. The results show some evidence that extroverts might have a higher probability of selection for key battalion leadership positions, but not at the company leader level or below. The estimates find no difference in leader performance between introverts and extroverts, as measured by peer and senior officer evaluations. Some limitations of this analysis relate to the data: the MBTI might not be the best instrument for measuring extroversion, and the leader performance measures may be "noisy" indicators of true performance. Using the Big 5 personality test recently adopted by USNA, future research could add more insight into the impact of personality on leadership selection and performance.