Conscientiousness and leader emergence: the mediating role of functional behaviors

Purpose Despite extensive research on personality and leader emergence, very little is known about the process by which employees become or emerge as leaders based on their performance. Integrating functional leadership theory and a behavior perspective, the authors aim to explore the parallel multiple behavioral mediators in the conscientiousness–leader emergence link. Design/methodology/approach By integrating a field survey study and two experimental studies, the authors use parallel multiple mediation analysis to explore the mechanisms by which conscientiousness leads to high levels of leader emergence. Findings Conscientiousness is positively associated with employee leader emergence. Employee functional behaviors are positively associated with leader emergence. The authors consistently found that the effect of conscientiousness on leader emergence is primarily explained by increases in task- and change-oriented behaviors but not relations-oriented behaviors. Practical implications Organizations can design relevant training programs to cultivate and enhance employees' functional behavior, as the study findings suggest that an effective way to translate employees' conscientiousness into their leader emergence is to improve their task- and change-oriented behaviors. Originality/value This research highlights the consistent and important role of employees' functional behaviors in the form of task- and change-oriented behaviors linking conscientiousness to leader emergence.