Emergent Leadership Structures in Informal Groups: A Dynamic, Cognitively Informed Network Model

Gianluca Carnabuci (), Cécile Emery () and David Brinberg ()
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Gianluca Carnabuci: ESMT Berlin, 10178 Berlin, Germany
Cécile Emery: Centre for Leadership & Decision Making, Business School, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, United Kingdom
David Brinberg: Department of Marketing, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061

Organization Science, 2018, vol. 29, issue 1, 118-133

Abstract: This paper advances novel theory and evidence on the emergence of informal leadership networks in groups that feature no formally designated leaders or authority hierarchies. We integrate insights from relational schema and network theory to develop and empirically test a three-step process model. The model’s first hypothesis is that people use a “linear ordering schema” to process information about leadership relations. The second hypothesis argues that when an individual experiences a particular leadership attribution to be inconsistent with the linear ordering schema, that individual will tend to reduce the ensuing cognitive inconsistency by modifying that leadership attribution. Finally, the third hypothesis builds on this inconsistency-reduction mechanism to derive implications about a set of network structural features (asymmetry, acyclicity, transitivity, popularity, and inverse popularity) that are predicted to emerge endogenously as a group’s informal leadership network evolves. We find broad support for our proposed theoretical model using a multi-method, multi-study approach combining experimental and observational data. Our study contributes to the organizational literature by illuminating a socio-cognitive dynamics underpinning the evolution of informal leadership structures in groups where formal authority plays a limited role.

Keywords: leadership networks; cognitive schemas; linear ordering schema; network dynamics; informal groups; network experiments; stochastic actor-oriented models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:29:y:2018:i:1:p:118-133

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