Dynamic leadership emergence: Differential impact of members' and peers' contributions in the idea generation and idea enactment phases of innovation project teams

Integrating functional leadership theory with models of the team creativity and innovation, we present a dynamic model of leadership emergence where leadership emergence is shaped by (a) the type of contributions members express (constructive contributions proposing new ideas, or supportive contributions affirming ideas with merit), (b) when those contributions are expressed (i.e., in the idea generation or idea enactment phase), and (c) the extent fellow teammates themselves are contributing in constructive or supportive ways in those phases. We tested our theoretical model in two studies involving simulated teams engaged in an innovation design challenge. In both studies, we found that constructive contributions were more strongly related to leadership emergence in the idea generation phase than in the idea enactment phase. Moreover, the impact of constructive contributions on leadership emergence in the idea generation phase was stronger when there was a "void"-that is, fellow teammates' constructive contributions were low. Surprisingly, in both studies, we found consistent evidence that supportive contributions also enhanced leadership emergence in the idea generation phase, whereas the findings on supportive contributions and leadership emergence in the idea enactment phase were mixed. Overall, our model highlights the importance of integrating dynamic and contextualized aspects of teams into theories of leadership emergence and also sheds new light on the processes underlying emergent forms of leadership in the early phases of the innovation cycle.