A two-nation investigation of leadership self-perceptions and motivation to lead in early adulthood : the moderating role of gender and socio-economic status

Hoyland, Thomas, Psychogios, Alexandros, Epitropaki, Olga, Damiani, Jonathan, Mukhuty, Sumona ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2408-7123 and Priestnall, Chris (2021) A two-nation investigation of leadership self-perceptions and motivation to lead in early adulthood : the moderating role of gender and socio-economic status. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 42 (2). pp. 289-315. ISSN 0143-7739

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Abstract

Drawing on social-cognitive and motivational literature of leadership, the present study examines the influence of young adults’ self-perceptions of leadership on their leadership self-efficacy and motivation to lead in their future career. We further examine gender and socio-economic status (SES) as important moderators of the proposed relationships. The present investigation consists of a two-study research design, based on data collected from young adult samples across two culturally different countries, namely UK (N=267) and Japan (N=127). The study presents evidence of self-perceptions of leadership influencing leadership self-efficacy and motivation to lead. The results further support the mediating role of leader self-efficacy. Regarding the moderating role of gender, results in both samples showed that the effects of leader-self efficacy on motivation to lead were stronger for males. Socio-economic status was found to moderate the effects of leadership self-perceptions of negative ILTs on leadership self-efficacy in the UK sample and the effects of leadership self-perceptions of positive ILTs on leadership self-efficacy in the Japanese sample. This study fills the gap of empirical research focused on early adulthood influences on leadership development. In particular, this study has a three-fold contribution, by, firstly, developing a conceptual model that examines the role of young adults’ self-perceptions of leadership on their self-efficacy as leaders and motivation-to-lead; secondly examining contingencies of the proposed relationships; and thirdly testing the conceptual model in two countries.