Implicit Leadership Theories: Prototypes for New Leaders

Abstract

Followers' implicit leadership theories for new group leaders, including their prototypes of new-leader behavior, consist of organized expectations. If met, these expectations may afford a leader greater influence. Subjects' prototypes for new leaders were assessed by subjecting an 87 x 87 co-occurrence matrix of leader behaviors, based on subjects' similarity classifications, to hierarchical cluster analysis. At the proposed basic level of hierarchy (Rosch, 1978) were 16 categories of expectations for leader behavior, including giving ideas to the group, being responsible, and accepting others, which formed four abstract superordinate categories: learning the group's goals, taking charge, being a nice person, and being nervous. The results are discussed with relation to (a) the synthesis of the universal-trait and situation-contingent-behavior approaches for predicting leadership effectiveness, (b) cross-situational and cross-cultural comparisons of leader categorizations, (c) expectations for establishe...