Personality and Humbleness: The Role of the HEXACO Model of Personality in Development of Humble Leaders

Individual differences can be found in every aspect of emotion, thinking, and behaving. The discovery of basic personality structure models was a watershed for highlighting the importance of individual differences and their outcomes. Different individuals have differences depending upon their personality; these personality dimensions are described in terms of other personality traits in a concise but complete manner. Following the intentions and outcomes of the study, two of them were conducted where; in the first one was carried out to find how the HEXACO model of personality traits will impact Humble Leadership? While the second study intended to explain the impact of Humble Leadership on employee engagement through the mediating role of felt obligations. Two hundred sixteen respondents (leaders and workers) of government sector organizations participated in the study. Results of our research indicated/suggested that Honesty–Humility, Agreeableness, Emotionality, and Conscientiousness significantly contribute to the development of Humble Leadership; however, extroverts and Openness have an insignificant and negative impact on developing a Humble Leader. The outcome of study 2 suggested that Humble Leadership and Employee Engagement significantly impact each other while Felt Obligation plays a significant mediating role in this relationship. Plain Language Summary The purpose of this study is to find the impact of personality trait model on humble leadership and then the impact of humble leadership on employee engagement through the mediating role of felt obligation. Survey method was conducted to collect data from leaders and employees of public sector organizations. Results suggest that felt obligation mediates the relationship between humble leadership and employees obligation. Based on findings this study concludes that in today’s knowledge-driven economy, bottom-up leadership approaches are more entirely suited and are desperately needed. Further, organizations should formulate the strategies that promote humbleness in the organization to generate positive employee-related outcomes.