Edited by: Scott T. Allison, University of Richmond, United States
Reviewed by: Golan Shahar, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel; Santoshi Sengupta, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, India
This article was submitted to Organizational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
From the disciplinary field of the science of heroism, there is a need to deepen the processes that this science comprises, and at the same time, to test methods of inquiry to account for the variety of processes associated with this science. Linked to this sensitivity, the objective of this contribution is to jointly analyze, in a sample of future CEOs, what they imagine about heroism, their psychological types, and their values orientation. The sample consisted of 45 students (21 men and 24 women) between 22 and 47 years old (
The science of heroism has broadened the field of scientific explanations for leadership, due to the fact that it is not limited to unilaterally considering personal or social aspects as the main explanations for this process.
In fact, heroism science has reformulated the bases on which the main tendencies in the analysis of leadership have been established, that is: (1) the tendency that analyses leadership based on leaders’ personal characteristics; (2) the research on leadership that rests on the situation as an explanatory variable in this process; and (3) the most recent approaches that, starting from the notion of prototypicality and social identity, have gone beyond the one-directional analysis of the influence of the leader or the context, instead calling attention to what occurs between them.
After highlighting the contributions of heroism science in each of these three perspectives, we will examine heroism by considering the Analytical Psychology founded by C. G. Jung on the unconscious (personal, collective) and the psychological types – with values as a complementary indicator that shows the intersection between individual and social elements.
Introducing concepts of Analytical Psychology in the research of leadership as heroic accomplishment examines a perspective related to the foundational work by
Throughout its history, humanity has created leaders and caused them to emerge. This is demonstrated by the innumerable stories of gods, heroes, kings, great figures, and leaders who, depending on the case, have performed miracles, amazing feats, or successes (as well as meanness, stinginess, or failures). However, with the advance of the social sciences, a body of knowledge has been developed that, among other aims, tries to explain what makes leaders special. In this case, we are faced with a one-sided tendency that analyses leadership based on leaders’ personal characteristics – with what is known as charisma being the first.
The term charisma was used by
The incorporation of heroism into the explanation of leaders’ behavior has shown that the individual basis for what is heroic encompasses not only a certain personality profile, but also a series of features (categories, prototypes, self-representations:
Focusing on what leaders do and the way their actions are received by their followers, psychosocial knowledge has an undisputable point of departure in two classic studies: the one by
After these pioneer researches, studies were developed that were oriented toward defining which contextual variables would favor leadership (
From heroism science, the context has acquired a double value with regard to leadership: as a social situation that favors heroic behaviors and as an educational setting that foments heroism in day-to-day life. In fact, “the heroic learner’s journey is an inspirational tool that shows how a learner could undergo transformation in the field of education. The educational transformation of the heroic learner can benefit all members of society, including at-risk learners” (
In more recent years, interpersonal relationships in the leadership process have been acquiring greater relevance. Specifically, it is no longer a question of performing a one-directional analysis of the influence of the leader or the context, but rather of calling attention to what occurs between them. Examples of this can be found in the theories on transformational/charismatic leadership and social identity theory.
Transformational leadership has reformulated the idea of charisma – or the attraction exerted by a person:
The centrality of interpersonal relationships, consubstantial to transformational / charismatic leadership, has increased its explanatory power with the incorporation of the basic proposals of the two most influential theories in European social psychology: social identity theory (proposed by H. Tajfel) and self-categorization theory (whose main representative has been J. C. Turner) –
Thus, effective leadership is conceived as the result of: considering the leader to be part of the group s/he represents; the leader’s defense of the group, as far as s/he is just another member (although perhaps the most prototypical); reminding the group who they are and where they are headed; and creating a future scenario that responds to the group identity (
With the reinterpretation of leadership in terms of social identity, there is a balance between personal and situational components in the analysis of the phenomenon, which should not be confused with its stability. In this regard,
The incorporation of identity in the analysis of leadership has represented an advance that includes both this process and Social Identity Theory, on which it is based. However, the dynamic leader-follower identity interplay remains relatively unexplored (
Based on the idea of the depth – individual and social – that heroism can reach in everyday life, our study incorporates Analytical Psychology. This perspective, related to the foundational study by
In the Analytical Psychology founded by
For
Contents of the hero/heroine story (based on
Contents | |
---|---|
The Call to Adventure | Appearance of a mystery that must be solved. |
Refusal of the Call | Difficulties in giving up one’s own interests when faced with the mission to be fulfilled. |
Supernatural Aid | Appearance of a protector figure (and his/her lucky charms, amulets) to help at the beginning of the mission. |
The Crossing of the First Threshold | First step taken within the sacred area. |
The Belly of the Whale | Staying in the sphere of rebirth ormetamorphosis. |
The Road of Trials | Facing difficulties. |
The Meeting with the Goddess | Appearance of a presence that announces everything that can be known about the mission. |
Woman as the Temptress | Appearance of a presence that can interfere with the mission to becarried out. |
Atonement with the Father | Having a transcendent vision after accepting what is one’s own. |
Apotheosis | Divine state after overcoming ignorance. |
The Ultimate Boon | Adventure that the chosen one carries out with ease. |
Refusal of the Return | Rejection of returning with the trophy won. |
The Magic Flight | Flight with miraculous obstacles. |
Rescue from Without | Call from the Society to re-join it. |
The Crossing of the Return Threshold | First step taken in starting the return trip. |
Master of the Two Worlds | Transition between the world or dimensions of the universe known before and during the mission. |
Freedom to Live | Reconciliation between the individual conscience and the universal will, that is, integrating the achievements of the mission in the original context. |
The need to integrate the contents of the unconscious (collective, personal) into the conscious is precisely what underlies the active imagination, “a sequence of fantasies produced by deliberate concentration” (
However, it should be noted that each individual becomes conscious depending on his / her psychic activity, known as psychological types. When describing the types, the main distinction
In addition to the extraversion-introversion distinction, there are four psychological functions, two rational (thinking, feeling) and two irrational (sensing, intuition):
Without being held to the laws of reason,
And, finally,
“mediates perceptions in an
An example that synthesizes the predominance of one psychological function or another can be found in
“A
The instrumentalization of this typology has been made possible through the application of the MBTI (
The accumulated scientific evidence based on this instrument includes arguments in favor of and against its use. Supporting the MBTI,
Between these two extremes, some authors suggest accompanying the administration of the MBTI with other scales, in order to prevent the possible weaknesses of this instrument (
Values are cognitive representations that respond to needs transformed into goals (
From what is presented here – and to synthesize – we can highlight the two main ideas underlying this study:
The science of heroism, in spite of being in its early stages, has contributed alternative and novel interpretations to the main tendencies in the analysis of leadership, such as the personal attributes of the leader, the social situations that favor certain leaderships, or the ways leaders and followers relate to each other (linked mainly to identitary phenomena).
Due to its interstitial nature between the individual and social realms, leadership as heroic accomplishment is susceptible to being analyzed from Analytical Psychology, in particular, based on the relationships between the psychological types, the collective imagination about heroism, and the value orientations. This incorporation makes it possible to approach deeper content that can support what is heroic in the daily lives of leaders.
Based on these ideas, this research has the objective of jointly analyzing, in a sample of future CEOs, what they imagine about heroism, their psychological types, and their values orientation. In fact, considering a sample of future CEOs is relevant given that this role can integrate leadership and heroism (
Participants were 45 students (21 men and 24 women) between 22 and 47 years old (
Data were collected using three instruments, along with the necessary demographics: the MBTI, an
This questionnaire corresponds to the Spanish version of form G with 126 items (117 items with two response options, and the other nine with three) from the test that specifies the psychological typology developed by C. G. Jung. It considers the distinction between extraversion-introversion and the four functions of the psyche: thinking (T), feeling (F), sensation (S), and intuition (N). Depending on the person’s degree of awareness of each of these functions, they are considered primary, auxiliary, tertiary, and lower functions. In addition to what was presented above about the MBTI as an instrument to analyze the psychological types, the suitability and validity of the MBTI – particularly for the case at hand – have been documented in studies that have used it to analyze leader profiles (
This
This instrument is the Spanish adaptation of the Schwartz Value Survey (
Data collection was carried out in paper format, before class time – in order to avoid interfering with the participants’ master’s degree classes – and in person. It took three sessions (one per instrument). The information was collected during the Fall Semester of the 2017–2018 academic year, beginning 1 month after classes started and ending 15 days before the final exams. This timing was important: it was intended to prevent contagion by outside variables such as extra academic work, tiredness, and class absenteeism. Data collection was carried out by members of the research team who were previously trained in the application of the set of research instruments. With the consent of the teaching staff at the center, and after the research project had been introduced, the students filled out the instruments voluntarily after signing the informed consent. In each data collection session, the time required to fill out the instrument was less than 1 h. Confidentiality of the data was guaranteed, and the data were processed using version 24 of the SPSS program.
The data obtained in this study refer to the predominant psychological types, the main characteristics of the stories of the participants as heroes / heroines, and the orientation in terms of personal values.
The analysis of the psychological types (Table
Percentage of participants according to their Psychological Types.
Psychological types | % | |
---|---|---|
ISTJ / Introverted Sensing with Extraverted Thinking | 7 | 20.0 |
ISFJ / Introverted Sensing with Extraverted Feeling | 0 | – |
ESTP / Extraverted Sensing with Introverted Thinking | 3 | 8.6 |
ESFP/ Extraverted Sensing with Introverted Feeling | 2 | 5.7 |
INTJ / Introverted Intuition with Extraverted Thinking | 2 | 5.7 |
INFJ / Introverted Intuition with Extraverted Feeling | 0 | – |
ENTP / Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Thinking | 2 | 5.7 |
ENFP / Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Feeling | 0 | – |
ISTP / Introverted Thinking with Extraverted Sensing | 3 | 8.6 |
INTP / Introverted Thinking with Extraverted Intuition | 3 | 8.6 |
ESTJ / Extraverted Thinking with Introverted Sensing | 9 | 25.7 |
ENTJ / Extraverted Thinking with Introverted Intuition | 2 | 5.7 |
ISFP / Introverted Feeling with Extraverted Sensing | 0 | – |
INFP / Introverted Feeling with Extraverted Intuition | 0 | – |
ESFJ / Extraverted Feeling with Introverted Sensing | 1 | 2.9 |
ENFJ / Extraverted Feeling with Introverted Intuition | 1 | 2.9 |
Considering the psychological types according to their four main basic characteristics (Table
Percentage of participants according to the basic characteristics of the Types.
Characteristics of the Types | % | |
---|---|---|
Extraversion | 20 | 57.1 |
Introversion | 15 | 42.9 |
Thinking | 31 | 88.6 |
Feeling | 4 | 11.4 |
Judging | 22 | 62.9 |
Perceiving | 13 | 37.1 |
Sensing | 25 | 71.4 |
Intuition | 10 | 28.6 |
With regard to the stories described by the participants, in which they were the leading heroes / heroines (Table
Percentage of participants according to the main tendencies in each part of the hero/heroine story.
Part of the hero/heroine story | % | |
---|---|---|
The Call to Adventure | 23 | 65.7 |
Refusal of the Call | 5 | 14.3 |
Supernatural Aid | 4 | 11.4 |
The Crossing of the First Threshold | 0 | – |
The Belly of the Whale | 2 | 5.7 |
N/A | 1 | 2.9 |
The Road of Trials | 24 | 68.6 |
The Meeting with the Goddess | 2 | 5.7 |
Woman as the Temptress | 1 | 2.9 |
Atonement with the Father | 1 | 2.9 |
Apotheosis | 4 | 11.4 |
The Ultimate Boon | 0 | – |
N/A | 3 | 8.6 |
Refusal of the Return | 1 | 2.9 |
The Magic Flight | 0 | — |
Rescue from Without | 0 | — |
The Crossing of the Return Threshold | 4 | 11.4 |
Master of the Two Worlds | 7 | 20.0 |
Freedom to Live | 19 | 54.3 |
N/A | 4 | 11.4 |
As examples of each of the predominant tendencies in each part of the stories collected, we present the following (the extension of the text tries to situate the reader in the context of the story, highlighting in italics the fragment that illustrates the corresponding tendency):
“It is a winter night. A group of fishermen and their leader were on the open sea doing their work. It was the third night of their journey, and everything was going very well, just as planned.
The problem arose on the fifth night, when an accident on the boat caused technical damage …
“R was a young man who had the gift of changing the size of things just by thinking about it …One day they arrived at a place where a witch, seeing happy people, looked for the reason, and she cast a spell whereby, instead of changing the size, things would disappear by making them very small.
“Immediately, the aliens landed on the Earth, kidnapping the bad guys and explaining to humanity the truth and hidden secret throughout history.
For the tendency found in each part of the story, we went on to dichotomize the categories in the following way: in Departure, The Call of Adventure-Other departures; in Initiation, The Road of Trials-Other initiations; and in Return, Freedom to Live-Other returns. This recategorization made it possible to observe significant associations between the contents of the stories about their own hero / heroine and the predominant values of the participants.
Regarding values (Table
Types of values. Differences according to gender.
Values | Total sample ( |
Men ( |
Women ( |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tradition | 25.11 | 3.65 | 23.71 | 3.31 | 26.44 | 3.53 | –2.36 | 0.024 |
Security | 26.91 | 3.35 | 26.24 | 3.53 | 27,56 | 3,485 | –1.17 | 0.250 |
Stimulation | 26.14 | 4.25 | 26,06 | 3,864 | 26,22 | 4,710 | –0.11 | 0.911 |
Conformity | 28.20 | 3.51 | 26.88 | 4.09 | 29.44 | 2.35 | –2.28 | 0.029 |
Hedonism | 28.06 | 3.76 | 27.76 | 4.35 | 28.33 | 3.21 | –0.44 | 0.662 |
Achievement | 27.91 | 4.19 | 28.12 | 5.03 | 27.72 | 3.35 | 0.27 | 0.785 |
Benevolence | 29.51 | 3.59 | 28.76 | 3.15 | 30.22 | 3.91 | –1.20 | 0.236 |
Power | 24.51 | 4.36 | 24.53 | 5.00 | 24.50 | 3.82 | 0.02 | 0.984 |
Self-direction | 28.94 | 3.36 | 28.65 | 3.75 | 29.22 | 3.04 | –0.49 | 0.623 |
Universalism | 25.66 | 4.33 | 24.00 | 4.10 | 27.22 | 4.03 | –2.34 | 0.025 |
In addition to the gender differences, the emphasis on certain values was also observed depending on the main characteristics of the psychological types (Table
Types of values. Differences according to the main characteristics of the Psychological Types.
Focusing the attention |
Making decisions |
||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total sample |
Extraversion |
Introversion |
Thinking |
Feeling |
|||||||||||
Values | |||||||||||||||
Tradition | 25.11 | 3.65 | 25.40 | 3.50 | 24.73 | 3.93 | –0.52 | 0.601 | 25.00 | 3.70 | 26.00 | 3.55 | –0.51 | 0.614 | |
Security | 26.91 | 3.35 | 26.85 | 3.04 | 27.00 | 3.83 | 0.12 | 0.898 | 26.94 | 3.54 | 26.75 | 1.50 | 0.18 | 0.855 | |
Stimulation | 26.14 | 4.25 | 26.35 | 4.64 | 25.87 | 3.81 | –0.33 | 0.738 | 25.97 | 4.24 | 27.50 | 4.72 | –0.67 | 0.506 | |
Conformity | 28.20 | 3.51 | 28.05 | 3.73 | 28.40 | 3.31 | 0.28 | 0.775 | 28.10 | 3.68 | 29.00 | 1.82 | –0.80 | 0.450 | |
Hedonism | 28.06 | 3.76 | 27.65 | 4.08 | 28.60 | 3.35 | 0.75 | 0.456 | 28.26 | 3.60 | 26.50 | 5.19 | 0.87 | 0.387 | |
Achievement | 27.91 | 4.19 | 28.40 | 3.84 | 27.27 | 4.68 | –0.78 | 0.437 | 28.55 | 3.84 | 23.00 | 3.91 | 2.71 | 0.011 | |
Benevolence | 29.51 | 3.59 | 29.80 | 3.69 | 29.13 | 3.54 | –0.54 | 0.592 | 29.68 | 3.47 | 28.25 | 4.78 | 0.74 | 0.463 | |
Power | 24.51 | 4.36 | 25.48 | 3.98 | 23.27 | 4.68 | –1.48 | 0.146 | 24.90 | 4.11 | 21.50 | 5.80 | 1.49 | 0.145 | |
Self-direction | 28.94 | 3.36 | 28.40 | 3.76 | 29.67 | 2.71 | 1.10 | 0.277 | 29.29 | 3.28 | 26.25 | 3.09 | 1.74 | 0.090 | |
Universalism | 25.66 | 4.33 | 25.20 | 4.06 | 26.27 | 4.74 | 0.71 | 0.479 | 25.84 | 4.45 | 24.25 | 3.30 | 0.86 | 0.430 | |
Tradition | 25.11 | 3.65 | 25.73 | 3.75 | 24.08 | 3.35 | 1.34 | 0.190 | 25.08 | 3.74 | 25.20 | 3.61 | –0,08 | 0.931 | |
Security | 26.91 | 3.35 | 27.32 | 2.85 | 26.23 | 4.10 | 0.92 | 0.362 | 27.24 | 3.12 | 26.10 | 3.92 | 0.90 | .372 | |
Stimulation | 26.14 | 4.25 | 25.27 | 4.35 | 27.62 | 3.79 | –1.66 | 0.106 | 25.40 | 4.29 | 28.00 | 3.74 | –1.77 | 0.091 | |
Conformity | 28.20 | 3.51 | 28.77 | 2.81 | 27.23 | 4.41 | 1.26 | 0.214 | 28.76 | 3.00 | 26.80 | 4.41 | 1.52 | 0.138 | |
Hedonism | 28.06 | 3.76 | 26.95 | 4.06 | 29.92 | 2.29 | –2.76 | 0.009 | 27.84 | 3.18 | 28.60 | 5.10 | –0.53 | 0.597 | |
Achievement | 27.91 | 4.19 | 28.41 | 3.69 | 27.08 | 4.97 | 0.90 | 0.372 | 28.36 | 3.56 | 26.80 | 5.53 | 0.99 | 0.328 | |
Benevolence | 29.51 | 3.59 | 30.50 | 3.24 | 27.85 | 3.64 | 2.23 | 0.033 | 30.28 | 3.56 | 27.60 | 3.02 | 2.24 | 0.036 | |
Power | 24.51 | 4.36 | 24.86 | 4.54 | 23.92 | 4.15 | 0.62 | 0.537 | 24.76 | 4.40 | 23.90 | 4.43 | 0.51 | 0.610 | |
Self-direction | 28.94 | 3.36 | 28.82 | 3.40 | 29.15 | 3.43 | –0.28 | 0.781 | 23.90 | 4.43 | 29.80 | 3.45 | –0.95 | 0.349 | |
Universalism | 25.66 | 4.33 | 26.41 | 4.14 | 24.38 | 4.50 | 1.35 | 0.185 | 26.44 | 3.80 | 23.70 | 5.12 | 1.74 | 0.091 | |
The results obtained offer an empirical base that considers three aspects together: the psychological typology of potential leaders, the basic characteristics of their images of heroism, and the personal values that orient them. Specifically, this process has been investigated in an educational setting where heroic leaders of the future can be shaped.
The psychological types observed – in particular, the predominance of the functions of thinking and sensing, with intuition and feeling being at a lower level of consciousness – can orient the training of future leaders. Following the characterization by
The training of future leaders based on the psychological types employed must also take gender differences into account; thus, equality between men and women – in addition to responding to quotas in forming teams – would be complemented by the diversity stemming from incorporating other psychological types to develop teamwork. In a more general sense, the data obtained corroborate the usefulness of the MBTI in the study of leaders (
When analyzing the stories in which the participants were the protagonists, the use of the contents established by
Considering values as an interstitial concept between the collective and the individual has revealed the importance, in the group studied, of both individualist (Self-direction) and collectivist (Benevolence) values – with women significantly more oriented toward two of the collectivist values (Conformity, Tradition) and one of the mixed-type values (Universalism) (
The findings of this study must be considered in light of its limitations. The size of the sample studied and the procedure through which the participants joined the study partly restrict the explanatory power of the results, pointing to the need for statistical controls – in addition to the employees – in the research process. This will positively affect the comparison of our data with those from broader studies at a more collective level. Regarding the individual level, future studies will have to include the process of raising consciousness about one’s own heroism in leadership – and how heroism is integrated into people’s daily lives.
This awareness is susceptible to being investigated through a longitudinal study, taking into account that the entire process of self-awareness has fluctuations that can influence the stability of the measures. In this regard, the instruments used must respond to both an adequate statistical functioning and ontological coherence in its use, that is, making the measures serve the underlying theory of the study – rather than the contrary. As an example of this reflection, future applications of the MBTI in longitudinal studies must take into account the individuation process of those who respond– in the direction of what was described by
In a more general sense, this exploration of the heroic element of leadership is consistent with contributions linked to the so-called
All subjects gave written informed consent prior to the collection of the research data. The ethical requirements of the Ethics Committee of the University of Barcelona were applied to the current study, which meant that additional approval for the research was not required because the data obtained did not involve animal or clinical experimentation. Additionally, this study complies with the recommendations of the General Council of Spanish Psychological Associations (Consejo General de Colegios de Psicólogos) and the Spanish Organic Law on Data Protection (15/1999:
JP conceived and designed the research, drafting the work, and revising it critically for important intellectual content. NC was responsible for the analysis and interpretation of data gathered during the research, revising it critically for important intellectual content.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The authors express their thanks to Cynthia DePoy for her invaluable help in translating the manuscript into the English language.