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Power motives, personality correlates, and leadership outcomes: A person-centered approach
Zhuo Li1, Jennifer Lynch1, Tianlu Sun1
1Department of Psychology, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada.
Objective:
We investigated how these motivations combined within individuals to form unique profiles, and how these different profiles relate to personality traits and team behaviors.
Background:
Dominance, prestige, and leadership motives each play a key role in shaping social success or failure in gaining social rank and influence.
Method:
We used latent profile analysis across two samples (engineering student project teams, Nstudent = 1088; working adults, Nworker = 466) to identify profile configurations and how such profiles related to important outcomes.
Results:
We identified qualitatively distinct profiles: ultra-dominance profile (prominent dominance motive with high prestige and leadership motives); prestigious leadership profile (moderately high prestige and leadership motives, low dominance motive); and weak social power motive profile (low on all three motives). Individuals with the prestigious leadership profile were more likely to emerge as leaders, compared to those with a weak social power motive profile. People with an ultra-dominance profile scored higher on narcissism and tended to perceive themselves as leaders, despite not being deemed more leader-like by teammates.
Conclusion:
Using a person-centered approach allowed us to identify three power motive profiles across independent samples and generate insights into how these profiles manifest different social behaviors and outcomes.
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