A group member's desire to lead partially depends on their group identification

Abstract

Research on the social identity theory of leadership and identity leadership has found that group identification and related needs influence how they view leadership and leaders within groups. Inspired by these theories, three studies (and two pilot studies) investigated whether group identification relates to whether a group member wants to lead a specific group. Furthermore, the present research investigated whether this relationship still occurred after accounting for individual-level constructs related to leader emergence, such as a person's motivation to lead, leader identity, or other relevant constructs. Study 1 found that a group member's decision to pursue or decline a leadership opportunity is related to both their group identification and individual-level constructs. Study 2 found that how important a group member thought it was to pursue a leadership opportunity differed based on their group identification. Study 3 conceptually replicated this result and found support for an indirect effect: group identification influences how important it is for a person to become a leader of that group, which then increases the likelihood that they pursue a leadership opportunity within that group. This indirect effect remained after including relevant individual-level constructs. Overall, group identification indirectly relates to whether a person wants to become a leader of a specific group.