Ideal president like ideal boss? Looking for preferences

Wojciech Cwalina , Milena Drzewiecka

Abstract

Political leadership style and effectiveness depend not only on political system, but also on different interests of citizens and specialized marketing tools. The “age of manufactured images” and shift from citizenship to spectatorship make recognition and response to voters’ expectations crucial. According to Golemans’ [2000] business theory of leadership styles, leaders with high emotional intelligence who display authoritative, democratic, affiliative or coaching styles of leadership have greater chance of success than coercive and pacesetting leaders. The last two attain lowest sympathy and have negative impact on organizational climate. The aim of study was to find profile of ideal political leadership style, relating it also to real political leaders in countries of different democracy maturity (Poland vs. Georgia). The results show that however both Polish and Georgian voters praise affliative and coaching style, Polish voters expect to greater extent than Georgians, from their ideal president to be authoritative, democratic, affiliative and coaching. Moreover, differences on certain leadership dimensions perception were found. Pacesetting style is perceived by Georgians as part of leader’s communion, while part of leader’s agency. Nonetheless, real Polish and Georgian leaders are differently perceived in relation to ideal president’s style profile. Bigger differences are seen in case of Georgian politicians. The results give practical guides for image creation and candidates’ positioning, e.g. within political campaigns, and enrich discussion on leadership and its cross-cultural differences.