This study examines within-person change in leader identity (LI) over the course of a formal leader development program and how that change relates to learning goal orientation (LGO). Results of multilevel modeling of 299 data points from 39 leaders over 5 months indicate a positive, linear increase in LI across 12-time points. LGO was predicted and found to have both trait-like and state-like components. Trait-like LGO was positively associated with the mean change in LI over time, whereas state-like LGO was associated with within-person variance in LI over time. State-like, but not trait-like LGO positively related to differences in LI growth rates. However, we found larger rates of LI growth for leaders reporting lower levels of state-like LGO. This study adds to the body of research on leader development by providing a prospective and longitudinal test of LI development. Future research may investigate the aspects of leader training that most facilitate growth and change in LI.
BanksG. C.PollackJ. M.O’BoyleE. H.KirkmanB. LWhelpleyC. E. (2015). Bridging the science-practice gap in management by identifying grand challenges. Unpublished manuscript, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte.
2.
BaumeisterR. F. (1999). The nature and structure of the self: An overview. In BaumeisterR. F. (Ed.), The self in social psychology (pp. 1-20). Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
3.
BlieseP. D.PloyhartR. E. (2002). Growth modeling using random coefficient models: Model building, testing, and illustration. Organizational Research Methods, 5, 362-387. doi:10.1177/109442802237116
4.
BrewerM. B.GardnerW. (1996). Who is this “We”? Levels of collective identity and self representations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 83-93. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.71.1.83
5.
ButlerR. (1987). Task-involving and ego-involving properties of evaluation: Effects of different feedback conditions on motivational perceptions, interest, and performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79, 474-482. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.79.4.474
6.
ButtonS. B.MathieuJ. E.ZajacD. M. (1996). Goal orientation in organizational research: A conceptual and empirical foundation. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 67, 26-48. doi:10.1006/obhd.1996.0063
7.
CampbellJ. D.TrapnellP. D.HeineS. J.KatzI. M.LavalleeL. F.LehmanD. R. (1996). Self-concept clarity: Measurement, personality correlates, and cultural boundaries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 141-156. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.70.1.141
8.
CarrollB.LevyL. (2010). Leadership development as identity construction. Management Communication Quarterly, 24, 211-231. doi:10.1177/0893318909358725
9.
ChanK. Y.DrasgowF. (2001). Toward a theory of individual differences and leadership: Understanding the motivation to lead. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 481-498. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.86.3.481
10.
ClanceP. R.ImesS. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15, 241-247. doi:10.1037/h0086006
11.
DayD. V. (2011). Integrative perspectives on longitudinal investigations of leader development: From childhood through adulthood. Leadership Quarterly, 22, 561-571. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.04.012
12.
DayD. V.DragoniL. (2015). Leadership development: An outcome-oriented review based on time and levels of analysis. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 2, 133-156. doi:10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032414-111328
13.
DayD. V.HarrisonM. M. (2007). A multi-level, identity-based research approach to leadership development. Human Resources Management, 17, 360-373. doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2007.08.007
14.
DayD. V.HarrisonM. M.HalpinS. M. (2009). An integrative approach to leader development: Connecting adult development, identity and expertise. New York, NY: Routledge.
15.
DayD. V.SinH. P. (2011). Longitudinal tests of an integrative model of leader development: Charting and understanding developmental trajectories. Leadership Quarterly, 22, 545-560. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.04.011
16.
DeRueD. S.AshfordS. J. (2010). Who will lead and who will follow? A social process of leadership identity construction in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 35, 627-647. doi:10.5465/amr.2010.53503267
17.
DolbierC. L.WebsterJ. A.McCalisterK. T.MallonM. W.SteinhardtM. A. (2005). Reliability and validity of a single-item measure of job satisfaction. American Journal of Health Promotion, 19, 194-198. doi:10.4278/0890-1171-19.3.194
18.
DragoniL.TeslukP. E.RussellJ. E.OhI. S. (2009). Understanding managerial development: Integrating developmental assignments, learning orientation, and access to developmental opportunities in predicting managerial competencies. Academy of Management Journal, 52, 731-743. doi:10.5465/AMJ.2009.43669936
19.
DweckC. S. (1986). Motivational processes affecting learning. American Psychologist, 41, 1040-1048. doi:10.1037//0003-066x.41.10.1040
20.
DweckC. S.LeggettE. L. (1988). A social–cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95, 256-273. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.95.2.256
21.
EaglyA. H.CarliL. L. (2007). Through the labyrinth: The truth about how women become leaders. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
22.
EricssonK. A.KrampeR. T.Tesch-RömerC. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100, 363-406.
23.
HannahS. T.AvolioB. J. (2010). Ready or not: How do we accelerate the developmental readiness of leaders?Journal of Organizational Behavior, 31, 1181-1187. doi:10.1002/job.675
24.
HillerN. J. (2005). An examination of leadership beliefs and leadership self-identity: Constructs, correlates, and outcomes. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University, State College.
25.
HoffmanL. (2015). Longitudinal analysis: Modeling within-person fluctuation and change. New York, NY: Routledge.
26.
HoggM. A. (2001). A social identity theory of leadership. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 184-200. doi:10.1207/S15327957PSPR0503_1
27.
HoggM. A.van KnippenbergD. (2003). Social identity and leadership processes in groups. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 1-52. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(03)01001-3
28.
HrivnakG.ReichardR. J.RiggioR. E. (2009). A framework for leadership development. In ArmstrongS. J.FukamiC. V. (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of management learning, education, and development (pp. 456-475). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
29.
IbarraH. (1999). Provisional selves: Experimenting with image and identity in professional adaptation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44, 764-791. doi:10.2307/2667055
30.
JohnsonR. E.VenusM.LanajK.MaoC.ChangC. H. (2012). Leader identity as an antecedent of the frequency and consistency of transformational, consideration, and abusive leadership behaviors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97, 1262-1272. doi:10.1037/a0029043
31.
KomivesS. R.OwenJ. E.LongerbeamS. D.MainellaF. C.OsteenL. (2005). Developing a leadership identity: A grounded theory. Journal of College Student Development, 46, 593-611. doi:10.1353/csd.2005.0061
32.
LearyM.TangneyJ. P. (2012). The self as an organizing construct in the behavioral and social sciences. In LearyM.TangneyJ. P. (Eds.), Handbook of self and identity (2nd ed., pp. 1-18). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
33.
LordR. G.HallR. J. (2005). Identity, deep structure and the development of leadership skill. Leadership Quarterly, 16, 591-615. doi:10.1016/S1048-9843(01)00081-9
34.
MaasC. J.HoxJ. J. (2005). Sufficient sample sizes for multilevel modeling. Methodology, 1, 86-92. doi:10.1027/1614-2241.1.3.86
35.
MarkusH.KundaZ. (1986). Stability and malleability of the self-concept. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 858-866. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.51.4.858
36.
MarkusH.NuriusP. (1986). Possible selves. American Psychologist, 41, 954-969.
37.
MarkusH.WurfE. (1987). The dynamic self-concept: A social psychological perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 38, 299-337. doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.38.020187.001503
38.
MeadG. H. (1934). Mind, self and society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
39.
Mesmer-MagnusJ.ViswesvaranC. (2010). The role of pre-training interventions in learning: A meta-analysis and integrative review. Human Resource Management Review, 20, 261-282. doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2010.05.001
40.
MeuserJ. D.GardnerW. L.DinhJ. E.HuJ.LidenR. C.LordR. G. (2016). A network analysis of leadership theory: The infancy of integration. Journal of Management, 42, 1374-1403.
41.
MiscenkoD.GuenterH.DayD. V. (2017). Am I a leader? Examining leader identity development over time. Leadership Quarterly, 28, 605-620. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.01.004
42.
MoshmanD. (2003). Developmental change in adulthood. In DemickJ.AndrolettiC. (Eds.), Handbook of adult development (pp. 43-61). New York, NY: Plenum.
43.
MurphyM. C.DweckC. S. (2010). A culture of genius: How an organization’s lay theory shapes people’s cognition, affect, and behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36, 283-296. doi:10.1177/0146167209347380
MurphyS. E.JohnsonS. K. (2011). The benefits of a long-lens approach to leader development: Understanding the seeds of leadership. Leadership Quarterly, 22, 459-470. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.04.004
46.
NoeR. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
47.
NunnallyJ. C.BernsteinI. H. (1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
48.
O’LeonardK.KriderJ. (2014). What works in brief: The leadership development factbook 2014: Benchmarks and trends in U.S. leadership development. West Lake, TX: Deloitte Development.
49.
PayneS. C.YoungcourtS. S.BeaubienJ. M. (2007). A meta-analytic examination of the goal orientation nomological net. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 128-150. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.92.1.128
50.
PodsakoffP. M.MacKenzieS. B.PodsakoffN. P. (2012). Source of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 539-569.
51.
RaudenbushS. W.BrykA. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
SanteeR. T.JacksonS. E. (1979). Commitment to self-identification: A sociopsychological approach to personality. Human Relations, 32, 141-158. doi:10.1177/001872677903200204
54.
StetsJ. E.BurkeP. J. (2000). Identity theory and social identity theory. Social Psychology Quarterly, 63, 224-237. doi:10.2307/2695870
55.
TabachnickB. G.FidellL. S. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
56.
TriandisH. C. (1980). Value, attitudes and interpersonal behavior. In PageM. M. (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation, 1979: Beliefs, attitudes and values (Vol. 1, pp. 195-259). Lincoln: University of Nebraska.
57.
VandewalleD. (1997). Development and validation of a work domain goal orientation instrument. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 57, 995-1015. doi:10.1177/0013164497057006009
58.
WanousJ. P.ReichersA. E.HudyM. J. (1997). Overall job satisfaction: How good are single-item measures?Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 247-252. doi:10.1037//0021-9010.82.2.247
59.
ZweigD.WebsterJ. (2004). Validation of a multidimensional measure of goal orientation. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 36, 232-243. doi:10.1037/h0087233
