Pathways to informal leadership: The moderating role of gender on the relationship of individual differences and team member network centrality to informal leadership emergence

Abstract

Despite extensive research on leadership, very little is known about the emergence of informal leaders in teams that have worked together over an extended period of time within “real” organizational contexts. These teams are increasingly composed of both men and women, making gender a potentially critical variable in the dynamics of informal leadership emergence. This study examines how gender moderates the relationship between individual characteristics and informal leadership emergence in the context of intact manufacturing teams. Whereas a high level of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and team member network centrality predicted informal leadership more for men than for women, a high level of general mental ability predicted informal leadership more for women than for men. The implications for gender and informal leadership in intact teams are discussed.