Exploring the Curvilinear Effect of Motivation to Lead on Leadership Emergence: The Moderating Role of Shared Team Vision

Given the potential significance of the motivation to lead in answering the question of who will most highly emerge for leadership positions, the motivation to lead has garnered considerable attention. Nevertheless, we put forward a distinct perspective on the influence of the motivation to lead on leadership emergence. Based on the theory of leadership identity construction, we developed and tested a potential curvilinear relationship between individual motivation to lead and leadership emergence while also examining the moderating role of shared team vision. This study involved 639 employees across 159 work teams, with data collected using a multi-wave, round-robin approach. The results of social relations analyses indicated that individual motivation to lead has an inverted U-shaped relationship with leadership emergence. Meanwhile, shared team vision positively moderates the curvilinear relationship, such that those teams with weak shared vision experience foreshortened and weakened positive effect from motivation to lead. These results underscore the importance of comprehending the level of leadership motivation that can promote or prevent leadership emergence within work teams.