Who Becomes “One of Us”? Leaders’ Core Self-Evaluation and Prototypicality

Social Identity Theory of Leadership emphasizes the importance of prototype-based depersonalization and followers’ behavior roles by suggesting that they grant leaders power, charisma, and higher status (Hogg, 2001). Core self-evaluation (CSE) encompasses individuals’ core appraisals about their self-worth and competencies (Chang et al., 2012). Judge et al. (1997) highlighted four traits in their model: self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, emotional stability, and locus of control. leaders’ self-construct guides how subsequent experiences are interpreted to describe who the leader is and who they can become, which suggests the importance of determining how the self-construct is composed and altered to positively accelerate leader development (Avolio & Hannah, 2008). It is expected to see a serial mediation between the leader’s CSE and the follower’s job satisfaction through perceived leader prototypicality and the follower’s CSE. Additionally, Leader CSE at time 1 predicts Leader CSE at time 2 through the serial mediation of leader’s prototypicality, follower’s CSE, and follower’s job satisfaction. The findings can have practical implications in leader selection and leadership development, with training leaders who can be more prototypical by improving their core self-evaluation.