Executive Summary One of the most frequently reported findings in the leadership literature is the relationship between a leader's self-confidence and successful leadership. Yet, absent from the literature is a theoretical explanation for this long recognized association. A new leadership approach is proposed based on Bandura's (1986) social cognitive theory that posits leadership self-efficacy as the key cognitive variable regulating leader functioning in a dynamic environment. The full model considers leader cognitions in addition to leader behaviors and the situation resulting in a broader view of the leadership process. Implications and propositions for leadership research are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bandura, A.1982. Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist,37: 122-147.
2.
Bandura, A.1986. Social foundations of thought and action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
3.
Bandura, A.1997. Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: H.W. Freeman.
4.
Bass, B.M.1990. Stogdill's handbook of leadership. New York: Free Press.
5.
Brockner, J.1988. Self-esteem at work. Lexington, MA : Lexington Books.
6.
Chemers, M.M., Watson, C.B., & May, S.T.2000. Dispositional affect and leadership effectiveness: A comparison of self-esteem, optimism, and efficacy. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26:267-277.
7.
Churchill, W.1948. The gathering storm. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
8.
Cioffi, D.1991. Beyond attentional strategies: A cognitive-perceptual model of somatic interpretation. Psychological Bulletin,109: 25-41.
9.
Crundall, I., & Foddy, M.1981. Vicarious exposure to a task as a basis of evaluative competence. Social Psychology Quarterly, 44: 331-338.
10.
Early, P.C.Connolly, T., & Ekegren, G.1989. Goals, strategy development and task performance: some limits on the efficacy of goal-setting. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74: 24-33.
11.
Eden, D., & Aviram, A.1993. Self-efficacy training to speed reemployment: Helping people to help themselves. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78: 352-360.
12.
Eden, D., & Zuk, Y.1995. Seasickness as a self-fulfilling prophesy: Raising self-efficacy to boost performance at sea. Journal of Applied Psychology , 80: 628-635.
13.
Fiedler, F.1994. Leadership experience and leadership performance. U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences.
14.
Forgas, J.P., Bower, G.H., & Moylan, S.J.1990. Praise or blame? Affective influences on attributions for achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 59: 809-819.
15.
Gist, M.E.1989. The influence of training method on self-efficacy and idea generation among managers. Personnel Psychology, 42: 787-805.
16.
Gist, M.E., & Mitchell, T.R.1992. Self-efficacy: A theoretical analysis of its determinants and malleability. Academy of Management Review, 17: 183-211.
17.
Hackman, J.R., & Walton, R.E.1986. Leading groups in organizations. In P.S. Goodman & Associates (Eds.), Designing effective work groups: 72-119. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
18.
Hollenbeck, G.P.1991. What did you learn in school? Studies of a university executive program. Human Resource Planning, 14: 247-260.
19.
House, R.J., & Aditya, R.N.1997. The social scientific study of leadership: Quo vadis?Journal of Management23: 409-473.
20.
Kane, T.D.1995. Integrative functional leadership and social cognitive theory: The leader's regulation of groups. Unpublished doctoral dissertation , George Mason University: Fairfax .
21.
Locke, E.A.1991a. The essence of leadership: The four keys to leading successfully . New York: Lexington Books.
22.
Locke, E.A.1991b. The motivation sequence, the motivation hub, and the motivation core. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50: 288-299.
23.
Locke, E.A. & Latham, G.P.1994. Goal setting theory. In H.F. O'Neil, Jr. & M. Drillings (Eds.), Motivation: Theory and research: 1-13. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence.
24.
Manchester, W.1988. The Last Lion, WinstonSpencerChurchill. Boston, MA : Little, Brown & Co.
25.
Mumford, M.D., Zaccaro, S.J., Harding, E.A., Fleischman, E.A., & Rieter-Palmon, R.1993. Cognitive and temperamental predictors of executive ability: Principles for developing leadership capacity (Tech. Rep. 977). U.S. Army Research Institute, Bethesda, MD: Management Research Institute.
Salovey, P., & Birnbaum, D.1989. Influence of mood on health-relevant cognitions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57: 539-551.
28.
Savard, C.J., & Rogers, R.W.1992. A self-efficacy and subjective expected utility theory analysis of the selection and use of influence strategies. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 7: 273-292.
29.
Shrauger, J.S., & Schohn, M.1995. Self-confidence in college students: Conceptualization, measurement, and behavioral implications. Assessment, 2: 255-278.
30.
Spreitzer, G.M., McCall, Jr., M.W., & Mahoney, J.D.1997. Early identification of international executive potential . Journal of Applied Psychology, 82: 6-29.
31.
Stevens, C.K., Bavetta, A.G., & Gist, M.E.1993. Gender differences in the acquisition of salary negotiation skills: The role of goals, self-efficacy, and perceived control. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78: 723-735.
32.
Van Fleet, D.D., & Yukl, G.1986. Military leadership: An organizational perspective. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
33.
Weinberg, R.S., & Gould, D.1995. Foundations of sport and exercise psychology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
34.
Wood, R., & Bandura, A.1989. Social cognitive theory of organization management. Academy of Management Review, 14: 361-384.
35.
Wood, R.E., Mento, A.J., & Locke, E.A.1987. Task complexity as a moderator of goal effects: A meta-analysis . Journal of Applied Psychology, 7.2: 416-425.
Zaccaro, S.J., Foti, R.J., & Kenny, D.A.1991. Self-monitoring and trait-based variance in leadership: An investigation of leader flexibility across multiple group situations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76: 308-315.
