An Evolutionary Justification of the Emergence of Leadership Using Mathematical Models

Daniel Solow, Joseph Szmerekovsky and Sukumarakurup Krishnakumar
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Daniel Solow: Department of Operations, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
Joseph Szmerekovsky: Department of Management, Marketing and Finance, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58108, USA
Sukumarakurup Krishnakumar: Henry E. Riggs School of Applied Life Sciences, Keck Graduate Institute, Claremont, CA 91711, USA

Mathematics, 2021, vol. 9, issue 18, 1-23

Abstract: The value and importance of leadership is evident by its prevalence throughout human societies and organizations. Based on an evolutionary argument, models are presented here that provide a mathematical justification as to how and why leadership arose in the first place and then persisted. In this setting, by a leader is meant a person whose overall actions are ultimately responsible for the well-being and survival of the group. The proposed models contain parameters whose values reflect group size, harshness of the environment, diversity of actions taken by individuals, and the amount of group cohesion. Mathematical analysis and computer simulations are used to identify conditions on these parameters under which leadership results in an increased survival probability for the community.

Keywords: emergence; evolution of leadership; leadership; origin of leadership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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