According to Wunderley et al. (1998), “leaders who model an optimistic way of
construing events may very well display those behaviors of risk taking and innovation” (p. 752).
Information and communication behaviors have been found to be very closely associated with the
characteristics of opinion leadership (Arndt, 1972). Strong relationships have been found
between risk perception and information seeking behavior, as well as risk perception being
correlated with communication behaviors. Conger and Kanungo (1992) found that personal risk
was positively correlated with the caretaker role, a people oriented leadership role, and a
charismatic leadership role when individuals were asked to assess their supervisors.