Abstract:
Leadership is inextricably intertwined with the notion of influence. When examining the most prominent
contemporary approaches to leadership, notably neo-charismatic leadership theories, trait-based approaches to
leadership and leader-member exchange theories, the factors that determine leaders’ influence are sought in the
individual leader. This paper uses social identity approaches to leadership as a basis for constructing a conceptual
argument for investigating factors beyond the individual leader that impact on leaders’ influence. We focus on
group-level factors that impact on leader influence. Using a minimal definition of social groups as point of orientation
and framed by the philosophy of social constructionism, we show that two factors beyond the individual leader can be
identified: group entitativity, or ‘groupiness’, is identified as a group-level factor, and group identification is identified
as a member-level factor. This research contributes to a wider understanding of leader effectiveness by devoting
closer attention to the effect of group dynamics on leader influence.
