Investigating the role of personal attributes in leadership emergence

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether personal attributes are consistently associated with the emergence of leaders in small groups. Past research on leadership emergence has frequently examined the relationships between individual personal attributes and perceptions of leadership by group members following completion of a single group exercise. The present study extends the literature by taking a multivariate approach to the study of leadership perceptions, by varying group tasks and group membership, and by implementing both perceptual methods of measurement and direct measurement of leadership behavior. One hundred seventy-three undergraduate students participated in small groups to complete two tasks. Participants worked with different group members during each task. The first task emphasized competition and persuasion among group members and the second task emphasized cooperation and information sharing among group members. Following each task, group members rated and ranked all group members on leadership attributes and abilities. Trained observers then coded each of the leader behaviors that occurred during the group interactions and assigned their own objective leadership ranks to the group members. Multiple regression, discriminant analysis, and bivariate correlations revealed that dominance and intelligence were consistently related to both perceptions of leadership by group members and objective observation and coding of leadership behaviors. In addition, perceptions of leadership by group members were found to be related to objective behavioral indices of leadership; thus, a link was created between perceptual and behavioral measures of leadership. In addition, group members who were perceived as possessing prototypical leader traits were consistently identified as the group leaders by group members and trained observers. Implications of the present Study’s results and suggestions for future research in the field of leadership are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1995

Author dc:creator

• Roberts, Heather Elise

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Foti, Roseanne J.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Hauenstein, Neil M. A.
• Harvey, Robert J.
• Gustafson, Sigrid B.
• Markham, Steven E.

• implicit leadership theory
• personality
• prototypes
• traits

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-06062008-155350

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/38110