Leadership? no, thanks! a new construct: worries about leadership

Abstract

Leadership is considered a key career aspiration. However, in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, is such a goal indisputably desirable? Tapping the emotion domain, we propose a new construct, worries about leadership (WAL), defined as the worries people have about the possible negative consequences of assuming a leadership role. Four studies investigated discriminant, convergent and predictive validities of WAL scale using diverse methodologies: survey, lab experiment and naturalistic field study. Findings confirmed theoretically proposed dimensions of WAL: worries about failure, work-life imbalance, and harm. WAL was found orthogonal to Motivation to Lead (MTL; Chan & Drasgow, 2001) and correlated with neuroticism and prevention focus. Correlation of WAL scores with physiological indices of emotions was insignificant, albeit in the expected direction. WAL predicted leader emergence above and beyond MTL. These findings have significant theoretical and practical implications contributing to more nuanced understanding of leader emergence.