LEADER IDENTITY: EXPLORING INTRA-PERSONAL PATTERNS AND DEVELOPING A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL MEASURE

Over the last forty years, there has been ample research examining general leadership development and the characteristics of followers and leaders (Day, 2001). However, although recognized as important for leader development and leadership effectiveness, there is still much to understand about leader identity (Epitropaki et al., 2017). The focus on identity literature has been disproportionately focused on follower identity rather than leader identity (Epitropaki et al., 2017; Johnson et al., 2012). This shortage is unfortunate due to leader identity’s capabilities in developing leaders and effective leader behaviors (Miscenko et al., 2017; Johnson et al., 2012). Due to this deficiency, I focus my dissertation on leader identity and attempt to better grasp the development of one’s leader identity. In line with recent conceptual literature, I examine the four dimensions of leader identity and patterns of development to better understand the development of leader identity. Through the two papers in this dissertation, I aim to enhance our current understanding of leader identity.