OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM IN BUSINESS LEADERS

Male business leaders responded to 3 instruments, the Leadership Pract ices Inventory (LPI-SELF), the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (K AI), and a measure or-optimism and pessimism (O/P). Approximately 5 to 6 (range = 3 to 9) of each of the 48 leaders' direct reports rated th eir leaders on the LPI(LPI-OBSERVER) and also responded to the O/P ins trument. As predicted, both the leaders and their direct reports had l ower mean scores on pessimism than a normative group; neither group di ffered from the norm on optimism. The leader KAI scores were negativel y correlated with pessimism, and positively, though not significantly so, with optimism. Optimism was positively correlated with 2 factors o f the LPI-OBSERVER, but pessimism was not correlated with any of the f ive LPI factors.