The Relationship Between Employee Sex, Length of Service and Leadership Aspirations: A Study from Valence, Self‐Efficacy and Attribution Perspectives

Abstract

This study explores employees' leadership aspirations within the theoretical frameworks of valence model, self-efficacy model and attribution theory. The relationship between employee sex, length of service and leadership aspirations were also explored. Altogether 152 professionals in middle management completed a questionnaire assessing (a) overall leadership aspirations, (b) valence and instrumentality expectancies of 13 leadership outcomes, (c) three self-efficacy expectancies, and (d) attributions about effective leadership. The results showed that employees with less than two years service had significantly higher overall leadership aspirations, as well as Requests for reprints should be Sent to M. Singer, ment at Christchurch for their assistance in this project. Thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this paper. @

Leadership efficacy: Review and future directions

“…It has been suggested that through this transforming process, the motivational component of self-efficacy contributes to goal-setting separately and independently from one's abilities (Kane et al, 2002;Phillips and Gully, 1997). Additionally, Singer (1991) found that efficacy beliefs partially accounted for motivation for leadership aspirations for both men and women, particularly if they had more experience. This leads to our next research proposition: Proposition 4: Leaders' level of efficacy for self-motivation will be related to the level of effort they allocate to both thinking through and performing in challenging circumstances.…”

Leadership self‐efficacy and managers' motivation for leading change

“…Convergent validity evidence was compiled by including measures similar to leadership con®dence in the surveys. Three existing measures of self-perceived leadership abilities were included (Singer, 1991). The three ratings were: (1) effectiveness (`If you were in a leadership position, how effective would you be as a leader?…”

Is Leadership Part of Me? An Identity Approach to Understanding the Motivation to Lead

“…Exemplar-role comparisons: Similarity with a previous leader. Singer (1991) reported that a closed list of leadership attributes did not account for the observed variance in the leadership aspirations of individuals. A possible explanation for the lack of significance was that the specific attributes on the closed list might not be relevant to all participants (Pfeffer & Fong, 2005).…”

“…With the exception of leadership self-efficacy (LSE) perceptions (Chan & Drasgow, 2001;Kark & Van Dijk, 2007;Kessler et al, 2008;Hendricks & Payne, 2007), other self-concept variables related to the MTL have been largely overlooked in the literature (see Singer, 1991, for a notable exception). A promising stream of the leadership literature that may serve to guide research in this area is identity theory, which suggests that leader development requires a personcentered focus, including working toward the development of a leader identity as a central component of an individual's self-concept (e.g., Ibarra, Snook, & Guillen-Ramo, 2010;Lord & Hall, 2005).…”

“…Drawing on previous motivation (e.g., Fishbein & Stasson, 1990;Hurtz & Williams, 2009;Singer, 1991;Tubbs & Ekeberg, 1991) and leadership theories (e.g., Ashforth, 2001;Charan et al, 2001;Ibarra et al, 2010;Lord & Hall, 2005), we propose that self-exemplar role comparisons are mainly performed with the identity verification purpose of assessing personal adjustment with the leadership role in terms of skills and behaviors (i.e., manifest self-concept dimensions), and they serve to gain confidence in feeling capable of succeeding in the leadership role (i.e., the "I can" component of motivation). In contrast, self-prototypical role comparisons are used with the identity verification purpose of assessing the individual match to the leadership role in terms of values, meanings or ideologies (i.e., deep self-concept dimensions), and they serve to evaluate the extent to which leadership activities are attractive, self-relevant and fuel authentic feelings (i.e., the "I like" component of motivation).…”