How Contextual Performance Influences Perceptions of Personality and Leadership Potential

Research has found that employees high in cooperative and persistent personality traits tend to engage in more contextual performance at work—extra-role behaviors that support and maintain organizational structure. In a between-subjects experiment, we examined whether descriptions of employees engaged in contextual performance affected inferences about their personality traits and leadership potential. We also examined whether the effects of interpersonal facilitation on perceptions of agreeableness, and perceptions of agreeableness on leadership emergence, were moderated by target employee gender. As predicted, the positive relationship between interpersonal facilitation and leadership emergence was explained by increased perceptions of extraversion and agreeableness, though no effects of target gender emerged. By engaging in interpersonal facilitation, employees may be able to increase others’ confidence in their leadership potential through personality inferences.