Leadership competency profiles of successful project managers

The study of emotion in politics has been active, especially as it relates to the personality of political leaders and as an explanation for how people evaluate significant features around them. Researchers have been divided into two groups—those who study leaders and those who study publics. The research programs have also been divided between those who use emotion to explain reliance on early experience that dominates contemporary judgment and those who use emotion to explain why people respond to the immediate contemporary circumstances around them. More recently, theory and research have attempted to reconcile these two seemingly contradictory roles by integrating them. Emotion's role in politics is pervasive both because emotion enables past experience to be encoded with its evaluative history and because emotion enables contemporary circumstances to be quickly evaluated. More recently still, theoretical models and supporting evidence suggest that there are multiple channels of emotional evaluations.

Emotions in Politics

The ubiquitous yet inaccurate belief in international relations scholarship that cognitive biases and emotion cause only mistakes distorts the field's understanding of the relationship between rationality and psychology in three ways. If psychology explains only mistakes (or deviations from rationality), then (1) rationality must be free of psychology; (2) psychological explanations require rational baselines; and (3) psychology cannot explain accurate judgments. This view of the relationship between rationality and psychology is coherent and logical, but wrong. Although undermining one of these three beliefs is sufficient to undermine the others, I address each belief—or myth—in turn. The point is not that psychological models should replace rational models, but that no single approach has a lock on understanding rationality. In some important contexts (such as in strategic choice) or when using certain concepts (such as trust, identity, justice, or reputation), an explicitly psychological approach to rationality may beat a rationalist one.I thank Deborah Avant, James Caporaso, James Davis, Bryan Jones, Margaret Levi, Peter Liberman, Lisa Martin, Susan Peterson, Jason Scheideman, Jack Snyder, Michael Taylor, two anonymous reviewers, and especially Robert Jervis and Elizabeth Kier for their thoughtful comments and critiques. Jason Scheideman also helped with research assistance.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0020818305050058

Rationality and Psychology in International Politics

The case study, as a method of inquiry, is particularly suited to the field of political psychology. Yet there is little training in political science, and even less in psychology, on how to do case study research. Furthermore, misconceptions about case studies contribute to the methodological barrier that exists within and between the two parent disciplines. This paper reviews the various definitions and uses of case studies and integrates a number of recent insights and advances into a practical guide for conducting case study research. To this end, the paper discusses various stereotypes of the case study and offers specific steps aimed at addressing these criticisms.

A Practical Guide to the Comparative Case Study Method in Political Psychology

In our daily lives few things are as important to us as being treated with respect Yet in International Relations (IR), we regularly assume that actors follow just their material interests or the social norms appropriate for their identity, without caring if the treatment they get matches their own sense of importance and worth Drawing mostly on insights from moral philosophy and social psychology this article argues that even in international relations social respect can be a significant goal, both for instrumental reasons and as an end in itself In fact, as long as we ignore this dimension of international politics we will be unable to fully explain major features, specifically the intensity and duration of many cross-border conflicts To show the perspectives which systematic research on respect may open for IR, this article presents a theoretical overview of the chief factors that shape the reactions to respectful or disrespectful behavior

Respect and disrespect in international politics: the significance of status recognition

"Steinberg makes an impressive case that presidential decision-making may be influenced not only by cognitive mind-sets and beliefs, but by psychodynamic variables ... innovative in its interpretation, carefully argued, well researched, and engaging to read". Janice Stein, University of Toronto

Shame and Humiliation: Presidential Decision Making on Vietnam

Introduction Part One: Indira Gandhi 1 Indira Gandhi: From Prime Ministers Daughter to Prime Minister 2 Mother India: The Personality Profile of Indira Gandhi 3 Indira Gandhis Leadership Style Part Two: Golda Meir 4 Golda Meir: From Immigrants Daughter to Prime Minister 5 The Jewish Grandmother: The Personality Profile of Golda Meir 6 Golda Meirs Leadership Style Part Three: Margaret Thatcher 7 Margaret Thatcher: From Grocers Daughter to Prime Minister 8 The Iron Lady: The Personality Profile of Margaret Thatcher 9 Margaret Thatchers Leadership Style Conclusion

Women in Power: The Personalities and Leadership Styles of Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher

Although research into the factors that may affect male achievement of political leadership is relatively robust, very few studies on the making of female presidents and prime ministers exist. This paper examines the literature on birth order, sex of siblings, and parent-daughter dynamics to see whether the findings for male political leaders—that first-born individuals will be overrepresented as compared with later-born siblings—also hold for female ones. Two other hypotheses were tested concerning differences in birth order and sex of siblings between female political leaders and a larger sample of women. A review of the literature on parent-daughter dynamics suggests that this may be another important variable for future research into explanations for the success of women who achieve senior-level positions of power. The findings suggest that first-born women, like first-born men, are overrepresented among political leaders; that first-born women are overrepresented among female political leaders as compared with their numbers in a larger sample population; and that fewer female political leaders have an older brother than would be expected to occur in a larger sample population. The last finding applies only for women who come to power in the period 1960–1989, not those who gained office more recently.

The Making of Female Presidents and Prime Ministers: The Impact of Birth Order, Sex, of Siblings, and Father-Daughter Dynamics

This article explores the relationship between Indira Gandhi's personality profile in the period before she became Prime Minister and her leadership style during the time she was Prime Minister The instrument for assessing the personality profile was compiled and adapted from criteria for normal personality types and pathological variants. Gandhi emerges as a multifaceted individual with four of her personality scales-the Ambitious, the Reticent, the Contentious, and the Dominating-approaching the level of mildly dysfunctional. A psychodynamic explanation for these patterns was then offered. This study also developed an instrument for evaluating leadership styles in a cabinet system of government and postulated the theoretical links between personality patterns and leadership style profiles. Gandhi's leadership style was then examined and links between personality profile and leadership style explored: In eight of the 10 leadership categories, Indira Gandhi's leadership behavior matched our expectations for the Ambitious, Dominant, and Contentious personality profiles but not the Reticent one. Further discussion focused on the two areas in which personality patterns fell short of predicting leadership style and the possible explanations for this result.

Indira Gandhi: The Relationship between Personality Profile and Leadership Style

This paper examines the major explanations for deterrence failure and proposes an additional explanatory variable drawn from psychoanalytic theory-the experience of shame and humiliation by foreign policy leaders. Decision-makers who have undergone such experiences may be inclined to challenge the status quo, in order to restore their sense of self-esteem, even when such behavior violates the precepts of rational deterrence theory. The foreign policy behavior of Nikita Khruschev and John F. Kennedy, during the Cuban missile crisis, is examined in detail to demonstrate the way in which feelings of shame and humiliation are frequently followed by narcissistic rage that expresses itself in acts of aggression in an attempt to alleviate those painful affects and increase feelings of self-worth. The evidence suggests that placingforeign policy leaders in positions of humiliation may stimulate their desire for revenge, invite retaliatory behavior, and, particularly in times of crisis, run the risk of all-out war.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3791551.pdf

Blema S. Steinberg

Papers

Shame and Humiliation: Presidential Decision Making on Vietnam

Women in Power: The Personalities and Leadership Styles of Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher

The Making of Female Presidents and Prime Ministers: The Impact of Birth Order, Sex, of Siblings, and Father-Daughter Dynamics

Indira Gandhi: The Relationship between Personality Profile and Leadership Style

Shame and humiliation in the cuban missile crisis : a psychoanalytic perspective