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LEADERSHIP CREDIBILITY
Popular Political Leadership Personalities in the Netherlands
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2
1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................3
2 SITUATIONAL FACTORS...............................................................................3
2.1 Patterns of democracy ..............................................................................3
2.2 Shifting political culture .............................................................................4
3 THE MAKING OF A CREDIBILITY INDEX OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP .. . .5
3.1 The Dutch Prototype: What makes a Dutch political leader credible? ......6
4 MILLON INVENTORY OF DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA ......................................7
4.1 The MIDC: an introduction ........................................................................7
4.2 Conceptual Framework ............................................................................8
4.3 Data Collection .........................................................................................8
4.4 Scoring .....................................................................................................9
4.5 Interpretation ..........................................................................................10
4.6 MIDC Conceptual Basis for Scoring and Interpretation ..........................10
5 THE PUBLIC PERSONALITY OF JAN PETER BALKENENDE ...................11
5.1 Introduction: Balkenende’s four terms as a Prime Minister .....................11
5.2 Source Materials .....................................................................................12
6 RESULTS & INTERPRETATION ..................................................................12
6.1 Balkenende’s Dominant pattern ..............................................................12
6.2 Balkenende’s Dominant pattern: generalizations ...................................15
REFERENCIES ................................................................................................16
3
1 INTRODUCTION
In this paper the following question will be answered:
Which leadership characteristics are required for high credibility leadership ex-
pressed by executive politicians in the Netherlands in the first decade of the
second millennium?
Trying to understand leadership credibility requires an understanding of leader-
ship (A) and an understanding of the concept of credibility (B). Both things will
be established with empirical methods and discussed in this paper. In this paper
leadership credibility (B) is a combination of perceived trustworthiness, per-
ceived honesty and perceived competence. These are the characteristics the
Dutch want their leaders to display; the characteristics politicians in the Nether-
lands need to show (real or fake, as long as they do it realistically) in order to
become a high credibility leader. That is in order to be believed by the the pub-
lic. And only if a leader is being believed by the public, he or she will success-
fully realize political goals. After all, in order to remain stable, a democracy re-
quires a strong public belief in the countries leading persons. The concept of
credibility is thus defined as the three things (trust, honesty, competence) the
Dutch people find most important for good leadership, which was measured in
January 2009, July 2009 and January 2010 by means of a survey (N= approxi-
mately 5200).
Now in order to understand the concept of leadership, the fourth cabinet Balke-
nende (2007-2010) offers sixteen interesting leadership cases: a Prime Minister
(Jan Peter Balkenende) and fifteen other Ministers (responsible for different
portfilio’s such as Finance, Education, Healthcare and so on). Unfortunately it
takes too many pages to show and discuss the credibility patterns of all of the
Ministers, so only the case of the Prime Minister will be discussed here.
2 SITUATIONAL FACTORS
2.1 Patterns of democracy
The Dutch democracy strongly differs from the American, both in the way the
democracy was built and in the way the (political) culture influences what politi-
cians do. What kind of democracy is the Dutch one? We can anatomize democ-
4
racy in several ways (see R. Dahl, 1989, Vanhanen, 1990). One of them is the
distinction between majoritarian patterns and consensus patterns. The Dutch
democracy is a classic example of a consensus democracy: executive power-
sharing traditions, broad coalition cabinets, proportional representation, a multi-
party system, interest group corporatism, decentralized government and consti-
tutional rigidity (Lijphart, 1999: 43-45). An example of the other kind is the UK; a
classic example of a majoritarian democracy (both on Lijpharts executives-par-
ties dimension and on the federal-unitary dimension). The American democracy
also has a high degree of majoritarian patterns, but primarily on the exutives-
parties dimension, which is an important determinant of the legitimacy of power
and the relation between citizens and public officials. According to Arend Li-
jphart (1999: 301; 2008) “consensus democracies demonstrate (…) kinder and
gentler qualities in the following ways: they are more likely to be welfare states;
they have a better record with regard to the protection of the environment; they
put fewer people in prison and are less likely to use the death penalty; and the
consensus democracies in the developed world are more generous with their
economic assistance to the developing nations”. Specific democratic qualities
like women’s representation, political equality, participation in elections, and
proximity between government policy and voter’s preferences are higher in con-
sensus democracies (Lijphart, 2008: 99). Consensus patterns and majoritarian
patterns are likely to ask for different leadership styles. In a consensus democ-
racy leadership is mostly not written with a capital L. Leaders don’t stand alone,
they govern together. The public in the Netherlands is suspicious of capital L
leadership, which is more of a cultural pattern. Charisma is not neccesarily a
good thing for a leader to display. Much rather do the Dutch citizens see a
leader who is trustworthy, honest and competent. However, there seems to be a
shift towards more appreciation for PR-strategies from within the Ministries…
2.2 Shifting political culture
The Dutch cabinet invests millions of euro's branding the Ministries, the govern-
ing leader and his or her policies. Among others3, the former Secretary-General
of the Dutch ministry of Finance noted that having a good communications di-
rector may nowadays be more important than having a good Secretary-General,
because 'image is everything' and 'appearance rules over substance'. To Ameri-
5
cans, this is so obvious that nobody will write about it in these basic terms any-
more. But until recently in the Netherlands (see image 1) the significance of po-
litical image was relatively small. To decide who to vote for, other things mat-
tered more, like party preference, ideology and religion. Politicians were ex-
pected to be intelligent rather than popular, experienced rather than physically
attractive, a good governor rather than a good speaker. The average politician
in the Netherlands does not have a particular talent to speech and looks not at
all attractive. Until recently, nobody really cared about ‘the outside’, as long as
they did their job: govern the country properly.
3 THE MAKING OF A CREDIBILITY INDEX OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
Discovering more detailed patterns of likeability and believability of leaders re-
quires additional research. Political psychology offers a great deal of findings on
the leadership-followership relationship the Prime Minister and his citizenry un-
dertake. Late seventies research by Kinder, Peters, Abelson, and Fiske (1980)
showed that citizens assess leaders on the basis of earlier shaped prototypes,
which are images of what good leadership is and therefore what a good leader
should be and do. Aldrich, Gronke & Grynaviski (1999: 3) state that “Prototypes
are evaluative rulers against which presidential candidates and presidents are
measured” (see also De Vries & De Landtsheer, 2004).
Factor analysis research on presidential candidate traits shows a variety of
characteristics that play a role in candidate evaluations. Opposing Kinder et. al
(1979), Sullivan, Aldrich, Borgida and Rahn (1990) identify their own set of per-
sonality assessment characteristics. They found three basic dimensions of per-
sonality assessment on which candidates are evaluated: altruism versus selfish-
ness, strength of will versus lack of will power, and trustworthiness versus un-
trustworthiness. Yet a third set of dimensions along which presidential candi-
dates are evaluated was found by Miller, Wattenberg and Malunchpuk (1986):
competence, integrity, reliability, charisma and personal attributes. In the
nineties researchers continue using factor analysis on existing data on voter be-
havior in the U.S. They found traits like dominance and empathy (empathy con-
taining extraversion and charisma) (Pierce, 1993), competence and leadership
(Rahn, Aldrich, Borgida and Sullivan, 1990; Caprara, Barbaranelli & Zimbardo,
2002), being extravert and outgoing (Immelman, 1998, '99, 2002, 2003) and be-
6
ing a Teflon-personality to whom 'nothing sticks' and ‘ from whom all hurts fall
of’ (Newman, 1999). Contrary to Teflon-personalities, Velcron-personalities
never get away with a mistake. Their public missteps keep affecting their image
long after the event. These more recently found variables are considered “logi-
cally linked to leadership suitability” according to De Vries & De Landtsheer
(2009; 6-11). They summarize their 'suitability traits' as being outgoing versus
retiring, dominant versus aggrieved, ambitious versus reticent, accommodating
versus contentious and dauntless versus conscientious. This shows which char-
acteristics determine voter behavior and candidate appraisal, not what people
look for in their leaders. The latter is our field of interest, because we want to
define what makes a leader credible.
The only researchers who directly measured the characteristics people admire
in a leader (a prototype), are James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. They
wrote The Leadership Challenge (2007) and High Credibility Leadership: how
leaders gain and lose it, why people demand it (1993 and 2003). They convince
their readers of the importance of credibility within any leadership relationship.
To every public figure, being credible is key considering we live in a television-
and image-dominated society. People will only give another human being
'credit' if they trust the person to do the right thing with their mandate and to
take into account the credit-giver's interest.
Credibility is about how leaders earn the trust and confidence of their con-
stituents. It's about what people demand of their leaders as a prerequisite to
willingly contribute to their hearts, minds, bodies and souls. It's about the ac-
tions leaders must take in order to intensify their constituents' commitment to a
cause (Kouzes & Posner, 2003: introduction).
Following their example we decided to ask Dutch citizens directly what the pro-
totype of a good Dutch executive leader would be. What is it that makes the
leader credible according to Dutch citizens?
3.1 The Dutch Prototype: What makes a Dutch political leader credible?
A panel (N=5200) of Dutch citizens was asked which characteristics they con-
sider to be key for good leadership executed by a cabinet Minister. Twenty four
characteristics make a list of prototypical leadership qualities drawn from the in-
ternational leadership literature. There is a strong resemblance to the Charac-
7
teristics of an Admired Leader (CAL, Kouzes and Posner 2007). We used nine-
teen of twenty characteristics of Kouzes and Posner’s CAL. Five characteristics
were added because hypothetically they might of special importance in the
Dutch leadership case: trustworthy (which is an important concept within the
work of Kouzes and Posner but not one of the qualities of the CAL); integrity
(which tuns out to be the fifth quality of the Dutch leadership prototype, Within
Kouzes and Posner’s CAL it is part of the trait ‘honesty’); dedicated (because
this trait was part of the only survey question about qualities people admire in
political leaders that has been measured in the Netherlands, by the SCP, 2005);
and sympathy (because this trait is part of the National Election Studies (NKO)
in the Netherlands and might be of explanatory value to high credibility leader-
ship because it is often linked to charismatic/empathic leadership). The survey
panel was asked to cross five characteristics out of the list of twenty-four. The
prototype of a good Dutch executive leader turned out to be mainly concen-
trated around three characteristics: the people think Ministers need to be, above
all, trustworthy, honest and competent (see appendix 1, table 1.). We call this
three-scale index the Credbility Index of political Leadership (CIL).
4 MILLON INVENTORY OF DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA
4.1 The MIDC: an introduction
The personality of a leader as defined by Theodore Millon (1996) is thought to
influence leadership style and performance (Immelman, 1998). The question
here is: does it influence the extent to which leaders are credible (perceived
trustworthy, honest and competent), too? The Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Cri-
teria (MIDC), a framework with which a politician’s public personality can be in-
vestigated, could offer deeper insight when it comes to leadership leadership
credibility.
Personality was defined by Millon (1996: 4) as “a complex pattern of deeply em-
bedded psychological characteristics that are largely non-conscious and not
easily altered, expressing themselves automatically in almost every facet of
functioning. Intrinsic and pervasive, these traits emerge from a complicated ma-
trix of biological dispositions and experiential learning, and ultimately comprise
the individual’s distinctive pattern of perceiving, feeling, thinking, coping, and
behaving.”
8
4.2 Conceptual Framework
Immelman (1998, '99, 2002, 2003) and Steinberg (1999) compiled the Millon In-
ventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), based on the DSM III and DSM IV7. The
work of Theodore Millon “provides a sound foundation for conceptualizing and
assessing political personality, classifying political personality types, and pre-
dicting political behavior” (Immelman, 2004: 1-2). Millon’s work can be found in
many publications about personality research and personality prototypes: Mil-
lon, 1990, 1986a, 1986b, 1991, 1994a, 1994b, 1996, 2003; Millon and Davis,
1998, 2000; Millon, Davis and Millon, 1996; Millon & Everly, 1885). Aubrey Im-
melman adapted Millon’s method (1969, 1986b, 1990, 1994a, 1996; Millon &
Everly, 1985) and developed an instrument to study personality patterns of polit-
ical leaders.
The conceptual framework of the MIDC has twelve scales. Each scale has three
(scales 1A through 8) or two (scale 9 and 0) gradations, ranging from normal to
maladaptive (Immelman, 2004). In table 7 the personality patterns (scale 1A,
1B, 2, 3, 4, 5A, 5B, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and 0) and gradations (a, b, c, d and e) are dis-
played. The maladaptive gradations refer to personality disorders from the
DSM-III and DSM-IV.
4.3 Data Collection
Investigating leadership personality is not easy when face-to-face methods to
diagnose one’s behavioral patterns and characteristics are not available. This is
the case when it comes to diagnosing historical figures and present day politi-
cians for research within the field of political psychology. Aubrey Immelman
(1993c, 1999) started looking into the possibilities of using Millon’s personality
patterns to diagnose leaders from a distance and/or from hindsight. He devel-
oped the MIDC. This is a sophisticated method applied by means of meta anal-
ysis (Immelman, 2004) or ‘semi-qualitative content analysis’ (De Landtsheer et
al. 2004: 81). The researcher creates an ‘assessment at a distance’, by analyz-
ing content written by others. Source materials can be biographical works, inter-
views with the leader or with people who have known the leader well, either per-
sonally or professionally. Information can be found within books, newspaper ar-
ticles and –in theory– other sources too, such as the internet, television inter-
9
views or radio performances (although Immelman does not seem to include the
non-written sources).
4.4 Scoring
The researcher diagnoses leaders (‘target persons’, Immelman: 2004) indirectly
using relevant content from biographical source materials or other data pro-
duced by biographers, journalists, historians and political analysts (Immelman,
Manual-II-Revisited, 2004). During the coding process, in which the researcher
codes the relevant pieces of text from the biographical and other sources, the
so-called attributes are the first to be distinguished (table 8). Every relevant
quote fits attribute A, B, C, D or E: it refers to the target person’s expressive be-
havior, interpersonal conduct, cognitive style, mood/temperament or self-image.
The second step of the coding process is to distinguish one of the scales from
table X. If the quote says something about the target person’s expressive be-
havior (attribute A) and refers to the target person’s respectful behavior, the re-
searcher might decide to code the quote as an attribute A, Scale 6 (conscien-
tious-respectful pattern) quote.
The third step of the coding process, is the determination of the intensity with
which the leader shows to be a scale-6 leader. In other words, after determining
the attribute and the scale, the researcher needs to decide to which gradation
the pattern is present. All personality patterns “occur on a continuum ranging
from normal to maladaptive”, a being normal, b being exaggerated and c being
maladaptive. Gradation a gets one point, gradation b two points and gradation
c, being maladaptive, three points. Scale 9 and 0 are maladaptive scales from
nature. As a result, gradations a, b and c do not exist within these scales. Only
gradations d and e can be labeled on scale 9 and 0. Gradations d and e will get
4 and 5 points.
So the third and last step is to decide which gradation the quote refers to: gra-
dation a, b or c (or in case of scales 9 and 0, gradation d or e). After making
these three decisions, the quote can be coded as an attribute A, Scale 6, grada-
tion b quote. The researcher labels the quote consequently as an A6b quote. So
quotes can be labeled A1Ba (attribute A, Scale 1B, gradation a), B5Ac (attribute
B, Scale 5A, gradation c), E4b (attribute E, Scale 4, gradation b) and so on. In
total, there are 170 combinations, referred to by Immelman as alphanumerical
10
codes or ‘Diagnostic Criteria’. Within his manual, Immelman (2004) provides
170 different words to typify the diagnostic criteria. See for an example of a
score sheet the one of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in table 12.
4.5 Interpretation
After data collection, scoring and a double check executed by an experience
psychologist, it is time to start interpreting the outcome. Which scales get the
highest scores and what is the gradation of the target person’s scores? Some
patterns will be present in gradation a (‘present’), some in gradation b (‘promi-
nent’), c (‘mildly dysfunctional’), d or e (disturbed).
4.6 MIDC Conceptual Basis for Scoring and Interpretation
Findings showing up from the source materials are considered “logically linked
to leadership suitability” according to De Vries & De Landtsheer (2009; 6-11).
Immelman (Manual-II-Revisited, 2004: 1) refers to Simonton, who states that
this method in which researchers abstract personality traits from pieces of text
about the leader written by others, is valid: “secondary sources can offer the ba-
sis for personality assessments as well” (Simonton, 1986: 150, see also 1988).
Etheridge (1978) and Simonton (1986, 1988) offered a foundation for Immel-
man’s work by proving that by extracting personality traits from biographic data
can offer insight concerning the relationship between leadership personality and
(the success of/ quality of) political leadership.
After data collection, scoring and interpreting the results, the researcher ex-
plores the implications of a leader’s personality on his or her leadership style,
political decision-making, cooperation with others, a leader’s success and even
future behavior.
In this paper the focus is on the implications of a leader’s personality on his or
her public credibility. Immelman (2004) and others have shown that personality
explains presidential style, performance and policy preferences. Millon (1994a,
1996; Millon & Davis, 2000), Oldham and Morris (1995), and Strack (1997) pro-
vided theoretically grounded narrative descriptions of personality patterns which
can be helpful for the interpretation of the data. Other researchers (e.g., Barber,
1992; Etheredge, 1978; Hermann, 1987; Renshon, 1996b; Simonton, 1988)
11
show more concrete implications of personality patterns and the way they corre-
late with the patterns of Millon’s MIDC.
5 THE PUBLIC PERSONALITY OF JAN PETER BALKENENDE
5.1 Introduction: Balkenende’s four terms as a Prime Minister
Balkenende has led the Dutch government from the world famous elections of
2002 untill the cabinet resigned in February 2010. In many respects 2002 was
an interesting year. Balkenende’s main competitor Pim Fortuyn, a more right-
wing politician whose popularity skyrocketed right before the elections, was as-
sassinated. Balkenende led the cabinet through the first decade of the second
millennium, which politically, socially, economically and in many other ways was
an interesting period of time.
Internationally, there was 9-11 and the war against terrorism. Nationally there
was a lot going on concerning the integration topic: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a female
Dutch-Somali politician politically criticized the Islam and got sent away from
politics in 2005 because she had lied about her naturalisation while entering the
country in the nineties. There was opinionist Theo Van Gogh who was killed by
a young Muslim man after producing a critical movie about the Islam.
Balkenende was the Prime Minister during these and many other challenging
political happenings and circumstances. Who is this man with the old-fashioned
hairdo and Harry Potter-glasses, how did he make it into being a government
leader? And the central question of this chapter: what was the effect of his per-
sonality on his public credibility?
the Dutch were never particularly fond of Balkenende. It seems that he was the
best leader out of other alternatives that were considered to be worse. But he
outlasted many predecessors by remaining seated for eight years. Aside from
the obvious, there must be things that make him credible.
5.2 Source Materials
22 articles contained enough evidence to draw a grounded personality profile of
Jan Peter Balkenende. Over one hundred articles published between 2006 and
2009 were read and the most relevant 22 were selected for the MIDC coding
process as described by Immelman (2004). This resulted in over two hundred
relevant quotes. From these articles, 433 codes were given to the quotes, which
12
means 433 times an MIDC criterion was identified (on average, each quote was
coded approximately two times). The articles were written by 22 different jour-
nalists and researchers who gathered quotes from (former) co-workers, friends,
old school mates, fellow governors, politicians and family members of the Prime
Minister. As an extra check, the 70 articles not selected as MIDC source materi-
als were extensively analyzed in order to make sure that all the relevant MIDC
criteria were scored. From this process nothing new showed up: the Prime Min-
ister’s profile remained the same. Additional research confirmed most of the the
personality profile extracted from the 22 selected sources. A few criteria ap-
peared to be not significantly present within Balkenende’s personality, so they
were removed from the score sheet. A few adjustments were made after an ex-
tended check executed by an experienced psychologist10 and the discussions
that followed from this check.
6 RESULTS & INTERPRETATION
Jan Peter Balkenende has dominant, ambitious and conscientious patterns. Ta-
ble 11 shows the Personality Profile of Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balke-
nende, based on source materials written between 2006 and 2010. The score
sheet in table 12 shows these and a few other personality patterns present
within Balkenende’s expressive behavior, interpersonal conduct, cognitive style,
moods and self-image (attribute A through E).
6.1 Balkenende’s Dominant pattern
Balkenende first and foremost has a dominant political personality (25 raw
points makes 24.8 % of Balkenende’s full profile). This is partly due to the fact
that he is the Prime Minister and dominating behavior comes with the job. The
source materials show that he is the leader of the cabinet, so everyone naturally
expects him to show certain dominant behavior in leading the cabinet and dur-
ing tv-performances. Many people see him as the leader of the nation, so when-
ever there is a public problem, they want the Prime Minister to solve it or to
have it solved by his cabinet. The power and authority people expect the Prime
Minister to display depends on their view on leadership and government. But
despite the differences between people, everybody wants the Prime Minister to
solve problems - although citizens disagree strongly on which problems that
13
would be - and to lead the country into the right direction. So in order to do a
proper job, Balkenende needs to display a certain amount of dominant behav-
ior. This he certainly does, as is shown with the MIDC results.
But besides the fact that his job requires him to be dominant, Balkenende really
seems to have a dominant personality. A quarter of Balkenende’s character is
determined by dominant patterns, so there is robust evidence for a level III per-
sonality type. Immelman (2004:16) says about people who score more than 24
points on one of the scales between 1A and 8 (for scales 9 and 0 there is a dif-
ferent approach):
Identification of a criterion at both the second (scored 2 points) and third (scored
3 points) levels in all five attribute domains of a given personality pattern (i.e.,
25 points), or identification of a criterion in any four of the five attribute domains
at all three levels (scored 1, 2, and 3 points) of a given personality pattern (i.e.,
24 points), provides quite convincing evidence for the existence of a maladap-
tively exaggerated or distorted variant of the personality pattern associated with
those criteria.
Balkenende’s profile lacks only one criterion in order to be called “maladaptively
exaggerated”. In other words, Balkenende’s dominance might be slightly mal-
adaptive and possibly causes problems to himself and/or others. Each criterion
of the dominant pattern that was found to be present within his profile will be
discussed below. This will create a better understanding of the Prime Minister’s
personality. Such an analysis can explain why he behaves the way he does,
how he is reviewed by others and why. Hopefully it will give some insight into
his role as the leader of a new millennium Dutch cabinet and the way he is per-
ceived by the public. Could an MIDC personality analysis explain the extent to
which a leader is credible?
Each diagnostic criterion will be discussed below. Balkenende is dominant
within attribute A: expressive behavior (which might explain credibility shortcom-
ings), B: interpersonal conduct, C: cognitive style, D: mood/temperament and E:
self-image.
Attribute A. Expressive behavior. Balkenende expresses dominant behavior to
two out of the three gradations: he can be commanding (a) and forceful (b).
There was not enough evidence to score the gradation c criterion: Balkenende
is not aggressive.
14
Attribute E: Self-Image. From the way he presents himself through mass media,
it is clear that Balkenende considers himself assertive, competitive and powerful
(scale 1A, gradations a, b and c). The Dutch newspaper Het Parool shows that
“Balkenende claims to have dragged the Netherlands out of an economic reces-
sion, thanks to a conservative and efficient financial approach”34, which reflects
a dominant self-image: first he shows to be assertive (gradation a) by claiming
his success. Second, he shows to be competitive (gradation b) by showing that
he has done what other Prime Ministers could not do. And third, he shows to
have a self-image of being powerful by claiming that the recovery of the econ-
omy was because of his leadership. The question is, however: is this really
Balkenende’s self-image or is this political behavior based on a communication
strategy? Without a doubt, the latter is true anyway. Anything about Balkenende
that shows up in a newspaper or book will be a result of some kind of (political
or communicative) strategy. But how does Balkenende really perceive himself?
The source materials show a lot of dominant behavior, mixed with ambitious
characteristics. Balkenende is confident, conceited and sometimes even some-
what arrogant (scale 2, gradations a, b and c).
As more diagnostic criteria are discussed, It will become clear that Balke-
nende’s self-image is likely to be assertive (1Aa), competitive (1Ab) and power-
ful (1Ac), as is also shown by these quotes: “I’m done with the negativity. (…)
Internationally we [the Dutch] are performing great. Unemployment is histori-
cally low and the Dutch income is one of the highest of all European national in-
comes. Besides, people are satisfied with healthcare and other public services”
and “I have gone through a lot in the last ten years. Bad polls and worse re-
views. My last cabinet also had a hard time, but finally in 2006 we received pub-
lic confirmation of the good work. There is a reason I have won three elections
in a row. I consider that appreciation. Look at Mrs. Verdonk. She gets good
polling results but that gives her no guarantee to win elections whatsoever
Balkenende’s personality shows 24.9 % dominance. 36.7 % of his personality
exists of Ambitious (scale 2, 14.8 %) and Conscientious (scale 6, 21.9 %) pat-
terns.
6.2 Balkenende’s Dominant pattern: generalizations
15
Scale 1A, the dominant pattern, refers to individuals who are asserting and con-
trolling, but can be somewhat aggressive. Immelman (2004) says the following
about personalities with dominant patterns:
The Dominant pattern, as do all personality patterns, occurs on a continuum
ranging from normal to maladaptive. At the well-adjusted pole are strong-willed,
commanding, assertive personalities. Slightly exaggerated Dominant features
occur in forceful, intimidating, controlling personalities. In its most deeply in-
grained, inflexible form, the Dominant pattern displays itself in domineering, bel-
ligerent, aggressive behavior patterns that may be consistent with a clinical di-
agnosis of sadistic personality disorder. (Immelman, 2004: 18)
Immelman (2004) shows that adaptive variants of the Dominant pattern are sim-
ilar to the aggressive style (Oldham and Morris, 1995), the forceful style (Strack,
1997), the controlling pattern (Millon, 1994a) and the ‘managerial segment’ of
the managerial–autocratic continuum (Leary, 1957). Research shows that peo-
ple with the Millon’s controlling pattern are likely to show the conscientious fac-
tor as described in the five-factor model. Individuals who display controlling be-
havior (see Millon, 1994a) are likely to be extravert as well, but the correlation is
less significant. The factors Neuroticism and Agreeableness however are nega-
tively correlated to Millon’s controlling pattern (Millon 1994a: 82). There is no
correlation between the controlling pattern and the openness to experience fac-
tor of the five factor model (see Millon, 1994a: 82).
Simonton (1988) calls individuals like Balkenende, with an elevated dominant
pattern (scale 1A: 25 points), a contentious pattern (scale 5B: 5 points) and a
conscientious pattern (scale 6: 22 points) leaders with a ‘deliberative presiden-
tial style’.
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