Leadership As An Emergent Group Process Paper

Leadership as an emergent group process:

A social network study of personality and leadership A study by Cécile Emery, London School of Economics and Political Science, titled “Leadership as an emergent group process: A social network study of personality and leadership” was published by Sage. This article looked at the social network of a leaderless group to explore how Big Five personality traits affect leadership emergence. The researchers aim was to observe how the emergence of leaders and followers of leaderless or self-managing groups, correlates, to the group members’ personality traits predicted. In which, a social network approach was taken, in order to, examine emergent leaders and followers in several groups. When defining the Big Five personality traits, although, a lot of personality variables stand out; openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism are the most accurately describe aspects of personality. The method is used by many to consistently measure the individuals’ personality traits. These underlying traits are said to define a persons’ overall personality. The Big Five is best

The leader is seen by the group as likeable, fits the group prototype and displays leadership material. This particular leadership is one that emerges over a period of time. Typically, through positive communication the leader emergence process is successful. Positive communication behaviors for successful leadership emergence are initiating new ideas, being firm but not inflexible, and seeking others for opinions. Researchers have proven in additions to communication behaviors, personality traits such as the ones of the Big Five also play an important role. Many psychologists found that the personality traits can be classified within the five factors of the Big Five. However, several critics beg to differ about this exact