Showing Leadership by Not Showing Your Face
We examined experimentally whether a person unknown to potential followers could be seen as showing leadership. Based on the social identity analyses of leadership, we predicted that would-be leaders pursuing group-oriented goals would be seen as showing leadership to a greater degree when they were...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2015-01-01
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| Series: | SAGE Open |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014567476 |
| _version_ | 1818576109487259648 |
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| author | Diana M. Grace Michael J. Platow |
| author_facet | Diana M. Grace Michael J. Platow |
| author_sort | Diana M. Grace |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We examined experimentally whether a person unknown to potential followers could be seen as showing leadership. Based on the social identity analyses of leadership, we predicted that would-be leaders pursuing group-oriented goals would be seen as showing leadership to a greater degree when they were anonymous than when they were identified. We predicted this pattern would reverse when would-be leaders pursued personal, self-oriented goals. Support for this hypothesis was found for all but the most highly identified group members. For extremely highly identified group members, a would-be leader’s pursuit of group-oriented goals was all that mattered to produce relatively high levels of leadership perceptions. For all other participants, an anonymous, in comparison with an identifiable, group-motivated target was seen as showing relatively high levels of leadership. These data provide support for the social identity analysis of leadership, and help explain otherwise counter-intuitive and naturalistic observations of followership of anonymous leaders. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-15T00:49:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-65a1bcc7040a47c58ea5fae6d0af2040 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2158-2440 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-15T00:49:44Z |
| publishDate | 2015-01-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | SAGE Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-65a1bcc7040a47c58ea5fae6d0af20402022-12-21T22:41:27ZengSAGE PublishingSAGE Open2158-24402015-01-01510.1177/215824401456747610.1177_2158244014567476Showing Leadership by Not Showing Your FaceDiana M. Grace0Michael J. Platow1The University of Canberra, AustraliaThe Australian National University, Canberra, AustraliaWe examined experimentally whether a person unknown to potential followers could be seen as showing leadership. Based on the social identity analyses of leadership, we predicted that would-be leaders pursuing group-oriented goals would be seen as showing leadership to a greater degree when they were anonymous than when they were identified. We predicted this pattern would reverse when would-be leaders pursued personal, self-oriented goals. Support for this hypothesis was found for all but the most highly identified group members. For extremely highly identified group members, a would-be leader’s pursuit of group-oriented goals was all that mattered to produce relatively high levels of leadership perceptions. For all other participants, an anonymous, in comparison with an identifiable, group-motivated target was seen as showing relatively high levels of leadership. These data provide support for the social identity analysis of leadership, and help explain otherwise counter-intuitive and naturalistic observations of followership of anonymous leaders.https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014567476 |
| spellingShingle | Diana M. Grace Michael J. Platow Showing Leadership by Not Showing Your Face SAGE Open |
| title | Showing Leadership by Not Showing Your Face |
| title_full | Showing Leadership by Not Showing Your Face |
| title_fullStr | Showing Leadership by Not Showing Your Face |
| title_full_unstemmed | Showing Leadership by Not Showing Your Face |
| title_short | Showing Leadership by Not Showing Your Face |
| title_sort | showing leadership by not showing your face |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244014567476 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dianamgrace showingleadershipbynotshowingyourface AT michaeljplatow showingleadershipbynotshowingyourface |