Formal leadership and informal leader emergence: A social learning perspective

This research examines the indirect relationship between formal supervisors’ task-oriented leadership behavior and individual team members’ informal leader emergence, through members’ task-oriented behavior toward their teammates. Drawing from social learning theory, we suggest that this relationship hinges on both the supervisor’s and the focal member’s status in the team. We tested our theoretical model using a field sample of 226 nurses working in 51 teams. Results indicated that a supervisor’s task-oriented leadership behavior was positively associated with a focal member’s task-oriented behavior when (a) the supervisor enjoyed relatively high (but not lower) status and (b) the focal member had relatively low (but not higher) status within the team. Moreover, a member’s task-oriented behavior was positively related with his or her informal leader emergence. Together, these findings support our proposed conditional indirect effects model: A supervisors’ task-oriented leadership behavior was positively and indirectly associated with a team member’s informal leader emergence, through the member’s own task-oriented behavior, among supervisors with higher (but not lower) status and among members with lower (but not higher) status in the team. Hence, this study promotes new knowledge on how, why, and when formal leadership may promote informal leadership, highlighting individual members’ task-oriented behavior as an important mediating mechanism and both formal supervisors’ and team members’ status as key boundary conditions.