Toward a theory of individual differences and leadership: understanding the motivation to lead.
A broad, integrative theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between individual differences and various leader behaviors is presented; it proposes a new individual-differences construct called the motivation to lead (MTL). A large-scale study using 3 samples in different occupational and cultural contexts shows 3 factors underlying MTL, namely, affective-identity, noncalculative, and social-normative MTL. A parsimonious model of antecedents to MTL is developed through hierarchical regression modeling and is cross-validated using confirmatory latent variable modeling. MTL is shown to provide incremental validity over other predictors such as general cognitive ability, values, personality, and attitudes in the prediction of 2 behavioral measures of leadership potential. Findings are discussed with reference to the theoretical framework proposed for understanding individual differences in leader behavior.
Chan
K Y
KY
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. kychan@starnet.gov.sg
Drasgow
F
F
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D009790:Occupations; D011594:Psychometrics; D012044:Regression Analysis