Self-categorization and leadership: Effects of group prototypicality and leader stereotypicality

A self-categorization model of leadership is introduced (leaders have the prototypical characteristics of a psychologically salient in-group) and contrasted with leadership categorization theory (leaders have the appropriate stereotypical properties of a leader schema) in a 2 x 2 x 2 experiment. Under conditions of high or low group salience, and in anticipation of a group activity, subjects evaluated the leadership effectiveness of a randomly nominated leader who was group prototypical or nonprototypical and whose behavior was stereotypical or nonstereotypical of a leader schema. As predicted from the authors' self-categorization analysis, group prototypicality was a significant basis for leadership for subjects who identified with the group but not for those who did not. There was a general effect, consistent with leader categorization theory, whereby stereotypical leaders were perceived to be more effective than nonstereotypical leaders. However, as predicted, this effect was weaker under high group identification.