Getting Ahead or Getting Along? The Two-Facet Conceptualization of Conscientiousness and Leadership Emergence

Abstract

W e propose a theoretical process model of the social construction of leadership that sheds light on the relationship between conscientiousness and leadership emergence. The socioanalytic theory of personality is invoked to hypothesize different mediational paths linking the two facets of conscientiousness, achievement striving and duty, with leadership emergence. We tested the theoretical model with data from 249 employees matched with data from 40 of their coworkers and 40 supervisors employed in a Fortune 500 organization. Results indicate that the relationship between achievement striving and leadership emergence is partially mediated by competitiveness, providing support for a getting-ahead path to leadership. In contrast, the relationship between duty and leadership emergence is, in part, carried forward by trust, helping role perceptions, and helping behavior, supporting a getting-along path to leadership. Consistent with the self versus other distinction theoretically posited with regard to the facets of conscientiousness, although helping behavior is a predictor of leadership emergence, achievement strivers help only when they perceive helping as being an in-role requirement, whereas dutiful individuals enlarge their helping role perceptions.Key words: leadership emergence; conscientiousness; duty; achievement striving; socioanalytic theory of personality; social construction of leadership; getting ahead; getting along; helping behavior; organizational citizenship behavior; self-and other-orientation History: Published online in Articles in Advance September 27, 2012. IntroductionOver the last decade, organizational scholars have reinvigorated investigations of leadership. As noted by leadership scholars (Bennis 2007, Howell and Shamir 2005, Manz and Sims 2001, Meindl 1990, however, despite important advances, the leadership literature has focused primarily on how appointed leaders lead effectively, rather than the process by which one becomes a leader. Beginning to redress the imbalance, recent examinations have focused on bottom-up and emergent leadership processes in organizations (Carson et al. 2007, Foti and Hauenstein 2007, Pearce and Sims 2002, Taggar et al. 1999. One notable characteristic of emergent leadership processes is that they are often fraught with uncertainty and that flawed leaders can emerge because selection processes are undermined by lack of information-that is, the criteria for emergence are usually socially constructed and based simply on perceptions of leader-like qualities. However, it is clear that organizations rely on emergence processes to staff their leadership positions (Conger and Fulmer 2003), whereas individuals depend on emergence processes to progress in their careers (De Pater et al. 2009). This makes theoretical investigations into leadership emergence critically important for advancing organizational knowledge about leadership.Notably, because leadership emergence is specifically focused on how individuals become influential in the perceptions of others, it can b...

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