| Popis: |
The word “leader” is not exclusive to those who are in supervisory or managerial positions. In fact, many people are viewed as leaders without holding a formal leadership role. Many scholars now conceptualize leadership as a social process, and they argue an individual can take on the identity of a leader (e.g., DeRue and Ashford, 2010). Although there is a common assumption that being a leader is a worthy endeavor and beneficial in terms of power, status and rewards; there are drawbacks to leadership. Recent scholarship suggests that there are risks to leadership (Zhang, Nahrgang, Ashford, and DeRue, 2020), and people feel uncomfortable with leadership due to these risks (Lee Cunningham, Sonday, and Ashford, in review). Further, due to the romance that elevates the concept of leadership, there are certain properties of leadership that make it uncomfortable for people to say that they are leaders. Accordingly, people may not think of themselves as leaders. In prior survey study, the authors have found that people are uncomfortable with taking on the leader identity. The main research question that arises from prior work is: what can people think or do to make themselves more comfortable with taking on the leader identity (or what helps people feel more comfortable with adopting the leader identity)? The answer to this question comprises taking on the leader and “doing leadership,” and we hope to explore both avenues. This inquiry is especially significant because in many situations (e.g., self-managing teams), it is not clear who should lead. In our research, we explore whether thinking about a set of behaviors affects people’s comfort level with being leaders and “doing leadership.” We plan to run four survey studies associated with this research: three in the MO field pool (supervisor and focal employee/coworker), one in the MO student subject pool, and one in the Iowa undergrad course. Collaborators: Sue Ashford, Julia Lee Cunningham, Jennifer Nahrgang |
