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A Study of Personality and Leadership Styles among Members of a Rock Band

2014; Volume: 18; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

1939-4691

Michael W. Kattan, Terry L. Fox,

Diverse Music Education Insights

Musicians, in a very real sense, are and their bands, likewise, are in essence, small businesses. Snyder (2012) actually offers an online course of a similar name in which he helps musicians understand this additional role and responsibility, and recognize that beyond art, they also have to consider business aspect of their organization. Various small, medium, and large companies in virtually every industry have been studied for decades, examining multiple factors including organizational structure, leadership, and style. However, music industry has seen relatively little research, although bands, regardless of genre, would almost all fall in category of a small business. Perhaps reason is that musicians have not historically been considered entrepreneurs, and their bands have not generally been thought of as a business. Conducting research on this venue, and in particular, personalities and leadership styles found in this type of organization, can open a new avenue of research into small organizations. Personality is one of most frequently reported influences on human behavior, and has been referred to as the essence of a human being (Hall & Lindzey, p. 9). Individual personalities range from calm to aggressive, loud to quiet, extroverted to introverted. Personalities can be defined at extremes, or somewhere in between, and have also been shown to be inherent or situational. Personality defines who people are and how they act towards and with others. Another important factor which is often used to define an individual is their approach to leadership. Leadership is defined as ability to influence a group for sake of achieving a vision or goal (Stogdill, 1948). Leadership can have a significant iinfluence on relationships and group behaviors. Previous research has also related personality and leadership, including whether leadership traits are acquired or inherited (Ruvolo, Peterson, & LeBoeuf, 2004; Olson, 2009). This research examined relationship between personality and leadership, both from a general point of view as well as how these factors apply to members of modern day rock bands, specifically examining relationships members have with each other and way roles are defined in a band. Specific questions attempted to determine who is generally identified as leader of band, whether personality affects leadership roles in a band, and what personality and leadership attributes should a member have to be a better leader in their business--their band. The remainder of this paper identifies supporting and relevant literature, presents methodology used in this study, and discusses findings of a series of interviews with various band members. Implications, suggestions for further research, and limitations are also presented. LITERATURE REVIEW Musicians as bands as businesses Hauge (2012), in associating musicians as stated it rather succinctly that, To become entrepreneurial mean that musicians undertake commercial activities that are necessary for artistic creativity and performance (p. 1). She goes on to explain nature of musicians, and their inevitable progression towards entrepreneurship: People who establish a life project have an all-consuming interest and vision. Musicians' life project is their artistic universe, represented by their talent, creativity and desire to create outcomes such as new songs, albums, live shows, festivals, sound studios, and record companies. Becoming entrepreneurial is thereby a strategy and perpetual activity where musicians commercialise fragments of their life projects. This process develops through choices they make in order to realize a pathway into an imaginable future where music is doing business, and business is doing music. (Hauge, 2012, p. 2). A recent study by Coulson (2012) examined bands in north eastern England, among other aspects, specifically looking at the accidental nature of their enterprising lives and the musicians' understanding of entrepreneurial nature of their work (p. …