Dyadic congruence in motivation to lead and peer-implicit leadership theories in leadership emergence: Mediating role of peer trust

Building on leadership identity construction theory, this study adopts a dyadic approach to investigate peer recognition of implicit fit to leadership motivation -- the congruence between how individuals want to lead (motivation to lead) and how peers see leaders (peer-implicit leadership theories), and how such a congruence is related to peer trust and indirectly to leadership emergence. We surveyed 298 individual-peer dyads at two time points using round-robin approach.

Results of polynomial regression analyses reveal that peer trust and leadership emergence were higher in high-high dyads compared with those in low-low congruence dyads. Results also indicate that peer trust mediated the impact of congruence between motivation to lead and peer-implicit leadership theories on leadership emergence. Lastly, findings demonstrate the importance of understanding the process of peer recognition and highlight the importance of trust to considerably predict leadership emergence.