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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Organ. Psychol
Sec. Performance and Development
Volume 2 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/forgp.2024.1357196

Is It Normal To Lead? Evaluating the Role of Superiority and Similarity in Leader Emergence

Provisionally accepted
Peter D. Harms Peter D. Harms 1*Ted A. Paterson Ted A. Paterson 2Dustin Wood Dustin Wood 1Tyler N. Fezzey Tyler N. Fezzey 1
  • 1 University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, United States
  • 2 Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Attempts to explain the leader emergence process have resulted in several seemingly contradictory assertions about who attains power and influence in groups. As such, this study pioneers a novel integration of the two dominant explanations of leader emergence: superiority (trait-based perspective) and similarity (social identity perspective). We posit that the two primary aspects of non-normality – uniqueness and strangeness – have opposing relationships with leader emergence in groups. Utilizing a sample of 308 participants in seven social organizations, this study provides general support for a relationship between the non-normality dimensions and leader emergence, particularly when evaluations are made by peers. Additionally, we demonstrate that non-normality evaluations predict leader emergence above and beyond evaluations of the Big Five. This research lays the groundwork for a new era in leadership research that embraces the duality of individual traits and social perceptions, paving the way for a more nuanced and effective approach to leader emergence within dynamic group settings.

    Keywords: Personality, Leader emergence, normality, Leader categorization theory, social identity theory, social influence

    Received: 17 Dec 2023; Accepted: 31 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Harms, Paterson, Wood and Fezzey. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Peter D. Harms, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.