Leadership Identity Research Articles

Exploring the Contents of Leader Identity Development Across Life Domains

The way an individual self-identifies as a leader (leader identity) is a critical component of the leader development process (Day and Harrison, 2007). Since this recognition, the field has experienced increased attention (Epitropaki et al., 2017). In this way, the development of a leader identity naturally becomes a topic of importance given that organizations are interested in more effective leaders, considering the 60 billion dollars spent on leadership development programs by global organizations every year (Future Market Insights, 2024). However, despite some recent advances in understanding leader identity development, the discussion is often limited to a single life domain, most commonly work (Lanka et al., 2020) when leadership is understood to transcend a formal role or context (DeRue, Ashford and Cotton, 2009). The present investigation draws on theory of leader development across life domains (Hammond, Clapp-Smith and Palanski, 2017) to explore factors that promote and hamper self-identification as a leader. Through a thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006), 25 in-depth interviews focused on three different life arenas revealed four factors promoting leader identity development: being conceded responsibility, taking initiative, having an expanded understanding of leadership, and having a sense of purpose. Additionally, two factors served as obstacles: a feeling of incapacity, and self-focus. Implications for practice and theory are discussed. Specifically, the section distinguishes between internally- and externally-driven leader identity, how leader identity can be developed before and during the course of a research interview, and the role of purpose. On the obstacles side, the findings are firstly linked to the impact of leadership stereotypes (Epitropaki and Martin, 2004). Also, foundational works such as social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1986) and job demands-resources theory (Bakker, Demerouti and Sanz-Vergel, 2014) are incorporated in terms of how they may justify obstruction of positive change in leader identity.

Leader(ship) Identity Development and Meaning Making: A Scoping Review

Despite a growing body of scholarship on leader and leadership (i.e., leader[ship]) identity development (LID), there has been surprisingly little systematic attention devoted to the connection between LID and meaning making, which is notable because meaning making has been regarded as foundational to the LID process. Accordingly, the current scoping review explores the scholarship and key characteristics at the intersection of LID and meaning making. Specifically, the year of publication, research method and design, country of participants, and theories central to author justification are analyzed. After sharing the results, contributions, and implications for the constructs of LID and meaning making are outlined, with attention given to theoretical and methodological areas for future research. Finally, an integrated constructivist model of LID is proposed that urges leadership scholars and practitioners to incorporate developmental, identity, learning, and meaning‐making theories into their discussions of LID.

How is coaches’ social identity leadership related to mental health in elite athletes? The mediating role of satisfaction with performance

ABSTRACT It has been found that the way high-performance coaches lead influences both athletes’ performance and mental health. However, limited research exists on the Social Identity Approach to leadership in elite sports, despite growing interest in coaching science regarding interpersonal behaviours and leadership. This study investigates the empirical links between coaches’ leadership, sport performance and mental health from a social identity approach. One hundred and forty-five elite athletes (M age = 20.6 years; SD = 4.1; 62% women, 38% men) answered questionnaires measuring coaches’ social identity leadership, sport performance satisfaction and mental health. The overall structural equation model (SEM) accounted for 36% and 19% of the variances in athletes’ mental health and mental illness dimensions, respectively. There was a positive association between perceived coaches’ social identity leadership and sport performance satisfaction, explaining 10% of its variance. Coaches’ social identity leadership predicted athletes’ mental health but not mental illness. Sport performance satisfaction positively influenced mental health and negatively impacted mental illness. Fostering a sense of “we” and “us” within elite sport training groups is instrumental in promoting sport performance satisfaction and, consequently, enhancing the mental health of athletes. Coaching educational courses may benefit from social identity leadership in interpersonal behaviours.

Research on BP neural network model-based data mining technique in KOL identification

Abstract. Accompanied by the development of artificial intelligence industry, to play the data value of web crawler technology has been the focus of research in the field of computer network and data science, and the data mining technology based on artificial neural network intelligent algorithm is widely used. In view of this, this paper takes the BP neural network data mining technology, which has excellent nonlinear mapping capability, parallel processing capability and fault tolerance and is widely used, as the basis, and integrates the methods and ideas of data mining into the mining of data laws in the field of KOL identification of key opinion leaders, with a view to finding valuable intrinsic laws and relationships between the mining of web crawler technology and the identification of KOL features. The research content of this paper mainly includes two aspects of research work, the design of high-performance data mining technology and the actual work in the field of KOL recognition. On the one hand, this paper comprehensively describes the basic theory and methods of data mining, and focuses on the in-depth analysis and elaboration of BP neural network-based data mining technology on the basis of understanding and analyzing a variety of data mining technologies. On the other hand, this paper aims to solve the problem of bias in the prediction of traditional KOL model and design the experimental method of KOL recognition by BP neural network algorithm.

The Influence of Transformational Leadership and HEXACO Personality on Millennial Soldiers' Discipline in Indonesian Army (TNI AD)

This study examined the influence of transformational leadership style and HEXACO personality dimensions on the discipline of millennial soldiers in the Indonesian Army (TNI AD), focusing on leadership levels in Combat and Combat Support Battalions. The research utilized a mixed-method approach to explore how these variables interacted and contributed to enhancing soldier discipline. The findings indicated that both the transformational leadership style and the HEXACO personality dimensions significantly influenced soldier discipline. Furthermore, the study provided recommendations for applying an ideal leadership style that aligns with the unique cultural and generational characteristics in Indonesia. This research contributed to military leadership literature by offering new insights into human resource management within a military context, particularly in addressing the challenges posed by the millennial generation.

Leadership Development and Emergence of Leadership Traits in Female Leaders in Nepal: A Narrative Analysis of Female Leaders of Private Organisations

Female leaders practice a transformational leadership style which has been regarded and proved to be an effective approach in organizational settings. Despite several research findings adhering to the effective leadership approach adopted by female leaders, men still outnumber women in leadership positions. This research study delves into the leadership identity of Nepali female leaders, their effective leadership practice in organisations, and their leadership styles and traits. The research used a narrative identity framework, analysing the narratives of seven prominent female leaders in private organisations in Nepal. The result indicated that the leadership identity of these leaders was shaped by social (gender, corporate outlook) and family factors. Contrary to popular belief, these female leaders received strong support from their families and colleagues. These leaders demonstrated high emotional intelligence, were observant, cordial with colleagues, served as mentors, and had an ever-learning attitude that continuously enhanced their professional efficiency in a self-regulatory way. The combined effect of these interrelated attributes helped form six major leadership traits – empathetic, loyal and committed, adaptive, intuitive, team player, and resilient. These traits had a common foundation of being resolute and ethical and were strongly embedded in how they led and how they perceived their role as leaders in their organisations.

How elections shape perceptions of ideal leadership.

Individuals hold internal leadership representations, termed leadership prototypes. We examined how these prototypes changed in reaction to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. A sample of Republicans (N = 200), Democrats (N = 200), and individuals who identified with neither major party (N = 200), surveyed eight times between October 2020 and January 2021, and reported their perceptions of the characteristics of the ideal leader. Results from a regression discontinuity in time and repeated measurement analyses found that the election altered two dimensions of the average U.S. leadership prototype. We specifically find participants' perceptions of Tyranny and Masculinity to decrease, that is, shifts to more Biden-like and less Trump-like leadership prototypes. Other dimensions of the leadership prototype remained stable, that is, charisma, sensitivity, dedication, intelligence, and dynamism. Analyses examined two boundary conditions of the effect: political identification and the acceptance of the election result as legitimate. Only perceived legitimacy was found to moderate the effect with the shift in leadership prototypes being driven by individuals who accepted the result of the election as legitimate. Our findings demonstrate the dynamic nature of leadership prototypes in response to real-world events and more broadly how an election can shape psychological perceptions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Spotting Leaders in Organizations with Graph Convolutional Networks, Explainable Artificial Intelligence, and Automated Machine Learning

Over the past few decades, the study of leadership theory has expanded across various disciplines, delving into the intricacies of human behavior and defining the roles of individuals within organizations. Its primary objective is to identify leaders who play significant roles in the communication flow. In addition, behavioral theory posits that leaders can be distinguished based on their daily conduct, while social network analysis provides valuable insights into behavioral patterns. Our study investigates five and six types of social networks frequently observed in different organizations. This study is conducted using datasets we collected from an IT company and public datasets collected from a manufacturing company for the thorough evaluation of prediction performance. We leverage PageRank and effective word embedding techniques to obtain novel features. State-of-the-art performance is obtained using various statistical machine learning methods, graph convolutional networks (GCN), automated machine learning (AutoML), and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI). More specifically, our approach can achieve state-of-the-art performance with an accuracy close to 90% for leaders identification with data from projects of different types. This investigation contributes to the establishment of sustainable leadership practices by aiding organizations in retaining their leadership talent.

Supplemental Material for How Elections Shape Perceptions of Ideal Leadership

Supplemental Material for How Elections Shape Perceptions of Ideal Leadership

Racial Diversity Influences Community Leadership Identity Development: Homogeneity as a Baseline for Measurement

This study uses multilevel regression modeling to explore how racial diversity and other campus climate variables influence the development of community leadership identity on college campuses. Pulling from a longitudinal sample of students ( n = 7,829) over a 4-year period, findings show that attending a college campus with more racially similar peers (i.e., racial homogeneity) played a positive indirect role in predicting community leadership goals. This study's findings contribute to the existing literature on the influence of race and diversity on leadership development and provide insights that shape the development of community leaders.

Leading by Example: Identity Leadership and Mental Health in Men's Sheds Members.

The impact of leadership on members' mental health outcomes in community-based mutual-aid organizations such as Men's Shed is unknown. We analyzed (a) whether identity leadership is associated with Shed members' mental health, and (b) whether these links are mediated by psychological safety, social network quality, and social identity. Path analysis on data collected from 162 Australian Men's Shed members revealed statistically significant associations between identity leadership and each mechanism, and our model accounted for significant variance in mental health outcomes (14%-24%, ps < .001). Only social network quality and psychological safety were associated with unique variance in mental health outcomes. All indirect effects via social network quality and psychological safety were significant. These findings suggest the proposed mechanisms explain the relationship between identity leadership mental health outcomes in mutual-aid organizations such as Men's Sheds.

A social identity approach to crisis leadership.

This paper discusses the importance of a social identity approach to crisis leadership in the context of global crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic and emphasizes the interconnected relationships between leaders and followers. I highlight the role of leaders in fostering unity and shaping citizens' responses especially during crises. I discuss the nature of crises and the significant role of political leaders in guiding societal responses and suggest that crisis leadership extends beyond individual competencies and behaviours and involves a shift from individual to collective responses. With this, I introduce the social identity approach to leadership that views leadership as a social influence process and emphasizes the importance of creating a sense of 'we-ness' among followers. Following from that, crisis leadership involves leaders constructing defining features of collective identity and efficacy to address crises appropriately. However, the value of this approach depends on the careful definition of shared identity boundaries, consideration of diverse experiences within society, the evolving nature of crisis leadership over time and potential consequences of crisis leadership. The sustainability of identity leadership, the dynamics of intergroup and subgroup processes, and the complexities of various crises are identified as areas requiring further research.

Neo-institutionalism perspective on local governance in Lombok: Reinstitutionalisation of Tuan Guru in the Indonesian decentralization era

This article delves into an examination and analysis of leadership models within local government institutions in Indonesia, employing the conceptual framework of new institutionalism. We contend that informal local institutions within communities not only influence the behavior and identity of leaders as actors but, within the context of decentralization, have also undergone a process of reinstitutionalization regarding roles and functions, employing distinct patterns of appropriation. Employing an interpretive approach, this article focuses on phenomena within the management of local governance in the West Nusa Tenggara province. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, literature studies on local history, and online news searches. Through a case study of local governance in West Nusa Tenggara province, particularly Lombok, the article reveals that the Tuan Guru, an informal local institution in Lombok society, has experienced reinstitutionalization through vertical and horizontal appropriation. The conclusion drawn is that decentralization has created opportunities for informal institutions to re-establish their roles within formal governance through appropriation patterns.

Women coaches leadership development programme: an evaluation study of programme effectiveness.

Women's sport has been experiencing continuous growth, yet the low levels of women coaches in the United Kingdom (UK) suggests that the sport is missing out on potential talent. Guided by empirical research, a women-only leadership development programme was designed and implemented by UK Sport to a cohort of 20 coaches from January to June 2021. The main characteristics of the programme included raising awareness of gender bias while at the same time focusing on women coaches' leadership purpose and skills within a safe environment that supports coaches to build their leader identity. Kirkpatrick's (1998) four-level model was employed to guide the evaluation of programme effectiveness: reactions, learnings, applications and results. Interviews were conducted with 17 participating coaches. Content analysis of the qualitative data revealed five general categories (a) evaluations were mainly positive highlighting the aspects of the programme they liked, enjoyed and made most impression onto them; (b) learnings that impacted their work directly and immediately emerged as was the importance of on-going development; and (c) the majority of the women desired progression and transitioning to senior coach leadership positions was felt within their grasp; nonetheless, (d) challenges emerged and were described as organisational (e.g., recruitment, remuneration) and personal (e.g., work-life balance, childcare). Overall, the effectiveness of the programme was captured in its capacity to raise awareness, develop knowledge, build connections, and inspire so much so that its effects translated to many of these women moving to more senior leadership positions post-programme. Practically, this evaluation highlights that investment in individual coaches is part of the systemic change required to bring about gender balance in the coach workforce.

Do organizations based in Poland need identity leadership? Polish adaptation of the short and full form of identity leadership inventory

PurposeThe study aimed to test the validity and reliability of the Polish version of the identity leadership inventory (ILI) proposed by Steffens, Haslam, Reicher et al. (2014) and to confirm the relationship between identity leadership and various job-related outcomes (i.e., trust in leaders, job satisfaction, work engagement and turnover intentions) among employees from Poland-based organizations. Identity leadership appears to be a universal construct (van Dick, Ciampa, &amp; Liang, 2018) but no one has studied it in Poland so far.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consisted of 1078 employees collected in two independent subsamples from different organizations located in Northern and Central Poland. We evaluated the ILI’s factorial structure using confirmatory factor analysis.FindingsThe results confirm that the 15-item Polish version of the ILI has a four-dimensional structure with factors representing prototypicality, advancement, entrepreneurship and impresarioship. It showed satisfactory reliability. The identity leadership inventory-short form (four items) also showed a good fit with the data. As expected, the relationships between identity leadership and important work-related outcomes (general level of job satisfaction, work engagement, trust toward the leader and turnover intentions) were also significant.Originality/valueDespite the cultural specifics of Polish organizations, the research results were generally very similar to those in other countries, confirming the universality of the ILI as shown in the Global Identity Leadership Development project (GILD, see van Dick, Ciampa, &amp; Liang, 2018; van Dick et al., 2021).

Impacting elementary STEM teacher leadership identities

AbstractLearning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects starting at a young age helps prepare students for a variety of careers both inside and outside of the sciences. Yet, addressing integrated STEM in an elementary school setting can be challenging. Teacher leadership is one way to address this challenge. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive case study is to understand how participation in the NebraskaSTEM Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship project impacted elementary STEM teacher leadership identities. Our findings suggest participation in the project contributed to different layers of teacher leadership identity (as a STEM learner, as a STEM teacher, and as a STEM teacher leader). These findings suggest professional development should be tailored to address empowering specific layers of STEM teacher leaders' professional identity. Other teacher leadership development projects may want to consider how to structure their projects to empower teachers based on the identities and experiences of those teachers.

Leader prohibitive voice behavior and its effects on followers through leader identification and political skill

Prohibitive voice behavior plays a crucial role in organizational effectiveness by signaling previously undetected issues. However, individuals paradoxically perceive this behavior as difficult due to its emphasis on identifying harmful factors, which may lead to misinterpretation and other undesirable social consequences. Based on social learning theory, this study aims to identify how the leader’s prohibitive voice behavior affects the follower’s prohibitive voice behavior. We employed a quantitative research design, collecting and analyzing questionnaires from 317 leader-follower dyads in 59 Chinese companies. To test our hypotheses, we used mediation and moderation analyses, hierarchical regression analysis, and the PROCESS macro. The results partially supported the research hypothesis, indicating that leader prohibitive voice behavior positively influenced follower prohibitive voice behavior. Additionally, leader identification mediated this relationship, whereas follower political skill moderated the mediated relationship. Notably, the mediation’s direction contradicted our hypothesis; the mediated effect through leader identification was pronounced when follower political skill was at lower levels. This study proposes that the leader’s role as a role model is crucial in motivating followers’ prohibitive voice behavior. It highlights the significance of considering followers’ political skills when they emulate their leader’s behavior. From both theoretical and practical perspectives, we discussed these findings and highlighted their implications for organizational behavior and leadership development.

Trends and challenges of integrating the STEAM approach in education: A scopus literature review

Introduction: Scopus is a bibliographic database recognized globally for its breadth and depth, and plays a vital role in identifying research trends in education, particularly in the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) approach. Its vast collection of scientific articles, journals, conferences and patents provides researchers with access to a wide and diverse range of relevant studies. Scopus' ability to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date view of the development and implementation of the STEAM approach is crucial. Methodology: Using advanced bibliometric search and analysis tools, researchers can identify emerging patterns, evaluate pedagogical methodologies, and recognize areas that require further attention. In addition, Scopus facilitates the detection of international collaborations and the identification of leaders in STEAM research, allowing educators and policymakers to make decisions based on solid evidence and current trends. Results: In this bibliometric analysis of publications in Scopus between 2010 and 2024, the terms Educational approach STEAM, STEAM approach and STEAM were used as search metadata, yielding 254,303 results. After applying filters, 263 documents directly related to STEAM were selected. The results, analyzed using Vosviewer, revealed six affinity clusters based on keyword recurrence. Terms associated with STEAM include transdisciplinarity, instructional design, pedagogy, and technology. STEAM education is linked to teacher education, computational thinking, and art education. STEM relates to science and educational robotics. Primary education encompasses preschool and secondary education, comprehensive education, and inquiry-based design. Less frequently, the nodes education and teaching are associated with curriculum, science education, motivation, and pedagogical methods. Conclusion: This keyword analysis demonstrates the wide range of competencies and terms associated with STEAM, providing valuable information for identifying key competencies in this educational approach.

Therapy as identity leadership: Commentary on “Robertson et al. (2023): A social identity approach to facilitating therapy groups”.

Therapy as identity leadership: Commentary on “Robertson et al. (2023): A social identity approach to facilitating therapy groups”.

101 Identity leadership in Zumba classes: Does it matter to create a a sense of ‘us’ in temporary exercise groups?

101 Identity leadership in Zumba classes: Does it matter to create a a sense of ‘us’ in temporary exercise groups?