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Emergent Leadership Behaviors: The Function of Personality and Cognitive Ability in Determining Teamwork Performance and KSAs

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Abstract

This study investigated the theoretical underpinnings of individual differences in emergent leadership behaviors and their relationships to teamwork processes and outcomes. Both personality and cognitive ability were utilized to examine behaviors of leadership emergence, team performance, and KSAs. Three hundred and twenty undergraduate psychology students completed personality and cognitive ability tests and then formed sixty-seven mixed-gender teams. Members rated each other on emergent leadership behaviors as well as their team on specific interpersonal and self-management KSAs. Results revealed that extroversion, openness to experience and cognitive ability were predictive of emergent leadership behaviors. Conscientiousness and cognitive ability were associated with team performance. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, DePaul University, 1 East Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL, 60604

    Jill Kickul

  2. Northern Illinois University, USA

    George Neuman

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  1. Jill Kickul
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Kickul, J., Neuman, G. Emergent Leadership Behaviors: The Function of Personality and Cognitive Ability in Determining Teamwork Performance and KSAs. Journal of Business and Psychology 15, 27–51 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007714801558

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