Who Becomes a Leader in Teams: The Function of Motivation and Empowerment

This study explores the emergence of leaders in newly-formed teams based on two motivational aspects of individual differences: motivation to lead (MTL) and leadership self-efficacy (LSE). Sampling from the soldiers in the Korean Army Training Center, it was found that MTL and LSE are positively related to leader emergence outcomes. In addition, LSE was found to mediate the relationships between MTL and leader emergence. Moreover, this study introduces the moderating role of external leaders on the relationship between motives and leader emergence in leaderless teams. It was found that the empowering leadership behavior of external leaders moderates the effects of MTL and MTL on leader emergence.