Dr Karolina Nieberle karolina.w.nieberle@durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor
Leader Identity on the Fly: Intra-personal Leader Identity Dynamics in Response to Strong Events
Nieberle, K. W.; Acton, B. P.; Braun, S.; Lord, R. G.; Fu, Y. A.
Authors
Dr Bryan Acton bryan.p.acton@durham.ac.uk
Academic Visitor
Professor Susanne Braun susanne.braun@durham.ac.uk
Professor
Robert Lord robert.lord@durham.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor
Yue Fu yue.fu2@durham.ac.uk
PGR Student Doctor of Philosophy
Abstract
Recent theorizing challenges the notion that leadership, and especially leader identities, is static. Yet, we know little about the dynamics that characterize how leader identities change within individuals across short periods of time. The current work integrates theorizing on temporal dynamics in leadership research with event systems theory to describe and predict day-to-day shifts (i.e., unidirectional, sudden changes) and dynamic ebb and flow patterns (i.e., multidirectional, potentially nonlinear changes over multiple days) of individuals’ leader identities. Specifically, we argue that the experience of strong (i.e., novel, disruptive, extraordinary) daily events facilitates positive leader identity shifts, and that over time, the resulting identity ebb and flows are more pronounced in unfamiliar compared to familiar contexts. We collected experience sampling data from 69 young adults at a university in the UK across seven-day periods at three different time points during the academic year (1159 data points). Using dynamical systems modeling, we analyze the velocity (i.e., rate of change) and the acceleration (i.e., change in velocity) parameters of individuals’ leader identity dynamics. We find that (a) on a daily level, strong events prompt positive shifts in leader identity, and that (b) over time, chains of stronger and weaker events provoke similar patterns of leader identity ebb and flows. However, these relationships are not stronger in unfamiliar compared to familiar contexts. Our research informs the theoretical understanding of events and short-term leader identity dynamics. We discuss implications for theory and research, in particular how events can trigger leader identity formation.
Citation
Nieberle, K. W., Acton, B. P., Braun, S., Lord, R. G., & Fu, Y. A. (2024). Leader Identity on the Fly: Intra-personal Leader Identity Dynamics in Response to Strong Events. Journal of Business and Psychology, 39(3), 755-778. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-023-09906-7
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jul 28, 2023 |
Online Publication Date | Sep 5, 2023 |
Publication Date | Jun 1, 2024 |
Deposit Date | Aug 15, 2023 |
Publicly Available Date | Sep 5, 2023 |
Journal | Journal of Business and Psychology |
Print ISSN | 0889-3268 |
Electronic ISSN | 1573-353X |
Publisher | Springer |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 39 |
Issue | 3 |
Pages | 755-778 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-023-09906-7 |
Keywords | Events, Dynamical systems modeling, Young adults, Ebb and flow, Leader identity |
Public URL | https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1717861 |
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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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