1. AUTHOR:
CHARLOTTE AXON
REPORT TO PEARN KANDOLA
INSTITUTE OF WORK
PSYCHOLOGY,
SHEFFIELD UNIVERSITY
MANAGEMENT SCHOOL,
SHEFFIELD S10 1FL
September 2015
Confidential
FINAL REPORT – INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN
LEADERSHIP EMERGENCE: IS IT ALL ABOUT
PERSONALITY?

2. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN
LEADERSHIP EMERGENCE: IS IT ALL
ABOUT PERSONALITY?
AUTHOR
Charlotte Axon
SUPERVISOR
Dr Anna Topakas
PHONE: 07896837192 EMAIL: charlotteaxon10@gmail.com
WEB: linkedin.com/in/charlotteaxon

3. Final Report – Individual differences in leadership emergence: is it all about personality? Page 3
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1 OVERVIEW
This report outlines research conducted by Charlotte Axon as part requirement for an
MSc at the University of Sheffield and in collaboration with Pearn Kandola. The
project aimed to establish the individual differences and situational influences
associated with leadership emergence in an organisational setting and takes a
quantitative approach.
1.2 PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
An extensive literature review was conducted to establish the most influential factors
related to individuals emerging as leaders. The study gained responses from 116
managers from a UK-based insurance company using an online survey method.
Participants completed a number of established scales measuring aspects of their
personality, values, motivations, emotional intelligence and leader-subordinate
relationships (independent variables) on leadership emergence (dependent variable).
1.3 MAIN FINDINGS
 High conscientiousness, extraversion, emotional stability, narcissism, core self-
evaluations, motivation to lead, achievement values and quality of leader-
subordinate relations were significantly associated with leadership emergence.
This suggests higher levels of these traits were related to greater emergence.
 Low agreeableness was significantly associated with leadership emergence. This
suggests higher levels of disagreeableness were related to greater emergence.
 Core self-evaluations mediated the relationship between achievement values and
leadership emergence, suggesting that an individual’s core self-judgements could
explain the relationship between their values and emergence as a leader.
 Emotional intelligence and openness were not related to leadership emergence.
 Similar results were obtained through use of an additional dependent measure,
which found a positive relationship between openness and leadership emergence.
EMOTIONAL
INTELLIGENCE
MOTIVATIONS
PERSONALITY
SELF-
EVALUATIONS
VALUES
RELATIONSHIPS LEADERSHIP
EMERGENCE
KEY DEFINITIONS
Leadership
Emergence:
concerns traits and
experiences
predisposing a
person to become
perceived by
others as
‘leaderlike’, and
how these enable
their emergence
into a leadership
position.
Personality:
based on the Five
Factor Model
(Costa & McCrae,
1992). Includes
openness,
conscientiousness,
extraversion,
agreeableness, &
emotional
stability.
Narcissism: a trait
encompassing
arrogance, self-
absorption,
feelings of
grandiosity and
entitlement.
Core Self-
Evaluations (CSE):
a trait
encompassing four
components of a
person’s internal
judgements (locus
of control,
emotional
stability, self-
efficacy & self-
esteem).

4. Final Report – Individual differences in leadership emergence: is it all about personality? Page 4
0
5
10
15
20
25
3.2
7.6
20.4
8.4
9.8
19.9
12.8
3.1
9.7
22.2
2.9
9.3
7.7
Percentage
Factor
Amount of variance in leadership emergence
explained by each factor (%)
1.4 RECOMMENDATIONS
This project focussed on the developmental process in becoming a leader and
identified several personality and non-personality factors. As such, these results could
be utilised for purposes of development, selection, and identifying potential leaders.
Furthermore, combining with traits of effective leaders could yield a more complete
picture of leadership outcomes (i.e. who will lead and who can lead).
 Developing aspiring leaders
i. Mentoring programmes
Given the link between high quality supervisor relationships (LMX) and emergence,
mentoring schemes could be implemented that pair subordinates with experienced
colleagues, focussed on establishing trusting and supportive relationships. A meta-
analytic review of the mentoring literature demonstrated higher career outcomes in
mentored individuals compared to controls, although effectiveness depended on
mentoring type (Eby, Allen, Evans, Ng & DuBois, 2008).
ii. Self-efficacy training
Given that CSE was a mediating factor and is directly related to emergence,
developing traits such as self-esteem and self-efficacy may be crucial for those
lacking belief in their abilities to become leader. Programmes focussed on enhancing
employee self-evaluations could be implemented to address this. One evaluation
study of a simple intervention demonstrated greater self-efficacy (and decreased
turnover) compared to controls after 9 weeks (McNatt & Judge, 2008).
Both suggestions also bring additional benefits (e.g. job enrichment, quality of
communications), and can be cost-effective and easily implemented. Of course,
individuals can embark upon attempts to enhance these traits themselves.
Emotional
Intelligence (EI):
the ability to
perceive and
understand
emotion in oneself
and others.
Motivation to
Lead (MTL): the
degree to which a
person assumes
leadership
training, roles, and
responsibilities.
Split into affective
(feelings) and
social-normative
(responsibility)
components.
Achievement
Values: a concern
for long-term
involvement and
competition
against some
standard of
excellence.
LMX: the one-on-
one relationship
between a leader
and follower. Are
varied in quality.
KEY LEARNING POINT
Affective MTL (feelings
towards leading),
Extraversion, Narcissism
and CSE displayed the
strongest relationships
with leadership
emergence

5. Final Report – Individual differences in leadership emergence: is it all about personality? Page 5
iii. Enhancing motivation
Relationships were found between liking to lead (affective motivation) and having a sense of
responsibility to lead (social-normative motivations) with leadership emergence. Thus within
organisations it is important to recognise that individual motives for adopting a leadership role may
differ. This should be considered when evaluating individuals for particular positions.
It may also be possible to attempt to enhance motivations to lead, by portraying leadership positively
and encouraging more leadership experience (increase liking) and framing the role as one that they
ought to adopt (social-normative).
 Identifying leadership potential
In order to direct development initiatives to those deemed ‘high potentials’, accurate identification
of these individuals is required (i.e. knowing which factors predict emergence). Emphasis here is on
developing existing potential (over recruitment), particularly if costs are a limitation. Procedures
currently relied upon are often biased (e.g. competency frameworks), which tend to ignore juniors
possessing the potential to develop and cannot realistically be expected to have trait profiles similar
to experienced leaders. Therefore scales similar to those in this research could be used to identify
future leaders. Combined with traits related to successful leadership, a systematic measure of
potential could be designed specifically to suit an organisation’s future needs.
 Assessment and selection
When it comes to leadership decisions in the workplace, the gap between research and practice is
evident (R. Hogan, Curphy & J. Hogan, 1994). Methods for choosing leaders are varied, all adequately
able to predict effective leadership, but are often ignored. Again, bias is inevitable and poor decisions
can be costly.
Similar to the identification of potential, traits related to emergence could be compiled into bespoke
assessment tools, combining an individual’s scores on leadership emergence and effectiveness.
Counteracting scales should be integrated where possible, especially given that individuals possessing
‘dark’ traits are usually socially skilled with high self-esteem (Harris & J. Hogan, 1992).
Can possessing a ‘dark’ trait enable advancement into leadership positions?
Finding narcissism to be associated with leadership emergence
has important implications within organisations.
Narcissistic leaders have shown negative One study found greater business acquisition
effects on follower perceptions, which among narcissistic CEOs over 12 years
in turn relates to reduced job (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007). In some
performance (Judge, LePine & situations high narcissism leads
Rich, 2006). to higher follower ratings.
*The relationship appears more complex than other traits and further research is advised.

6. Final Report – Individual differences in leadership emergence: is it all about personality? Page 6
2. REFERENCES
Chatterjee, A., & Hambrick, D. C. (2007). It's all about me: Narcissistic chief executive officers and
their effects on company strategy and performance. Administrative Science Quarterly,
52(3), 351-386.
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Normal personality assessment in clinical practice: The NEO
Personality Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 5-13.
Eby, L. T., Allen, T. D., Evans, S. C., Ng, T., & DuBois, D. L. (2008). Does mentoring matter? A
multidisciplinary meta-analysis comparing mentored and non-mentored individuals.
Journal of vocational behavior, 72(2), 254-267.
Harris, G., & Hogan, J. (1992, April). Perceptions and personality correlates of managerial
effectiveness. Paper presented at the 13th Annual Psychology in the Department of Defense
Symposium, Colorado Springs, CO.
Hogan, R., Curphy, G. J., & Hogan, J. (1994). What we know about leadership: Effectiveness and
personality. American Psychologist, 49(6), 493-504.
Judge, T. A., LePine, J. A., & Rich, B. L. (2006). Loving yourself abundantly: relationship of the
narcissistic personality to self-and other perceptions of workplace deviance, leadership, and
task and contextual performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(4), 762-776.
McNatt, D. B., & Judge, T. A. (2008). Self-efficacy intervention, job attitudes, and turnover: A field
experiment with employees in role transition. Human Relations, 61(6), 783-810.