Leader appeal depends on leader-follower trait matching while performance reflects enduring traits.

Evidence

Although the present results are based on a small population of leaders and measures that involve several assumptions, they do suggest some interesting hypotheses about leadership in the real world of politics: (a) Leader appeal seems to involve a personsituation (or leader-follower) match on psychological characteristics. (b) Leader performance (historically rated greatness and some major outcomes), when it is more than a function of circumstances, may involve more enduring and less situationally defined psychological characteristics of the leader. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1366

Categorization

• XREF: The person-situation match idea echoes interactionist views in personality psychology and follower-centric theories of leadership. — connects to: Leader popularity stems from leader-follower congruence while greatness stems from leader traits — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 1361; Leaders are accepted only when embodying features shared with followers — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 153; No stable traits distinguish leaders from followers or predict effectiveness — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 27 (+1 more)