Designing a Model for the Mediating Role of Leadership Styles in the Relationship between Board Personality Traits and the Weakness of Internal Controls

The aim of this research is to find a model to explain the mediating role of leadership styles in the relationship between board personality traits and the weakness of internal controls.

This research is an applied research with quantitative data. The four leadership styles of Hersey and Blanchard are mediating variables and the big five components of Neo personality traits are the independent variables of this research. Structural equations and partial least squares method have been used to test the research models. The research period is fiscal years 2019 and 2020 and using the systematic elimination method, 398 companies were selected from the companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange and Iran Fara Bourse.

The results indicate that some components of managers' personality traits have significant effect on their leadership styles and leadership style has a mediating role in the relationship between personality traits of Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness of managers and weakness of internal controls, about the Extraversion and Openness personality traits, the mediator role is not significant.

The model designed in this research has high predictive power. Based on the proposed model, stockholders and other corporate governance top bodies, in selecting managers, are suggested to consider their personality traits, especially Neuroticism, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, and leadership style tendencies, including Telling, Selling and Participating. In this research, for the first time in Iran, the mediating role of leadership styles in the relationship between board personality traits and the weakness of internal controls was investigated and the results help to develop behavioral financial literature, corporate governance and related theories.