Getting Ahead or Getting Along? The Two-Facet Conceptualization of Conscientiousness and Leadership Emergence

Sophia V. Marinova (), Henry Moon () and Dishan Kamdar ()
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Sophia V. Marinova: Department of Managerial Studies, College of Business Administration, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60607
Henry Moon: Department of Management, China Europe International Business School, Pudong, Shanghai 201206, People’s Republic of China
Dishan Kamdar: Department of Organizational Behavior, Indian School of Business, Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500-032, India

Organization Science, 2013, vol. 24, issue 4, 1257-1276

Abstract: We propose a theoretical process model of the social construction of leadership that sheds light on the relationship between conscientiousness and leadership emergence. The socioanalytic theory of personality is invoked to hypothesize different mediational paths linking the two facets of conscientiousness, achievement striving and duty, with leadership emergence. We tested the theoretical model with data from 249 employees matched with data from 40 of their coworkers and 40 supervisors employed in a Fortune 500 organization. Results indicate that the relationship between achievement striving and leadership emergence is partially mediated by competitiveness, providing support for a getting-ahead path to leadership. In contrast, the relationship between duty and leadership emergence is, in part, carried forward by trust, helping role perceptions, and helping behavior, supporting a getting-along path to leadership. Consistent with the self versus other distinction theoretically posited with regard to the facets of conscientiousness, although helping behavior is a predictor of leadership emergence, achievement strivers help only when they perceive helping as being an in-role requirement, whereas dutiful individuals enlarge their helping role perceptions.

Keywords: leadership emergence; conscientiousness; duty; achievement striving; socioanalytic theory of personality; social construction of leadership; getting ahead; getting along; helping behavior; organizational citizenship behavior; self- and other-orientation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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