Motivation to lead : antecedents and resulting leader emergence

Abstract

Leadership is a prolific research area, yet very few studies examine the self-motivating process of leadership development. The newly proposed concept, motivation to lead (MTL; Chan & Drasgow, 2001), was employed to understand individual differences in leadership potential. 309 undergraduate students (222 women and 87 men, mean age = 21.0) completed questionnaires in the first session. 264 participants came back to the second session in which they were divided into 42 groups to participate in leaderless discussions. Two external raters observed and rated the group members' leadership emergence behaviour. Results indicate that cognitive ability (as measured by university quality point average; QPA), some Big-Five personality factors, including Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional stability, others-emotions appraisal, use of emotion, and interpersonal emotional intelligence predict individual differences in MTL. Motivation to lead, on the other hand, most proximally predicts leader emergence. In addition, affective-identity MTL mediates the relationship between gender, QPA, Extroversion, and leadership emergence, and suppressed the effects of Agreeableness and interpersonal emotional intelligence on leadership emergence.