A Longitudinal Investigation of the Interactional Process Mechanisms of Leadership Emergence in Dyads

Abstract

The purpose of the following study was to advance the science of leadership emergence by taking a process-oriented approach to understand the dyadic micro-level interacts that underlie the emergence of leader-follower relationship. While most leadership emergence research focuses mainly on attributes, behaviors, or perceptions of individuals and neglects the multi-level, temporal and contextual of the emergence leaders, this study focuses on dyads' attributes, behaviors and perceptions and considers the teams, over time, and in situ. Individuals worked together in teams over the course of four weeks to accomplish a task, and their verbal interactions were recorded and coded. Attributes of dyads and dyadic perceptions of leader-follower relationship emergence were collected. Results showed dyads that were more similar in leadership self-efficacy were more likely to engage in symmetrical types of interactions. Furthermore, the more dyads engaged in such symmetrical exchanges, the more likely they were to both see each other as leaders, than to both not see each as leaders. Contrary to expectations, no significant results were found for the effect of dyadic dissimilarity on dyadic interactions, or for the effect of complementary interactions of leader-follower relationship emergence. Implications of these findings are discussed.