The value of leaders we trust and leaders who make us stronger : exploring the distinct contributions of different components of identity leadership to group member outcomes

Bibic, Kira (author), Frenzel, Svenja B. (author), Kerschreiter, Rudolf (author), Černe, Matej (author)

This study investigates the critical role of social identity in leadership, specifically examining identity leadership (IL) and the unique contributions of its four subdimensions: identity prototypicality, identity advancement, identity entrepreneurship, and identity impresarioship. To date, research has largely focused on the global construct of identity leadership and shown that in organizational contexts, it is a predictor of a range of outcomes, including group members’ burnout and organizational citizenship. However, the distinct roles of the four subdimensions remain little understood. Extending earlier findings, we address this gap by testing the hypothesis that the four subdimensions are differentially implicated in two key mechanisms that underlie the relationship between IL and group outcomes: (a) trust in the leader and (b) team identification. The present study explores this proposition by using structural equation modeling with latent factors to test a mediation model in 2020–2021 data from the Global Identity Leadership Development project (GILD; N = 7,855). As hypothesized, we found that identity prototypicality and identity advancement predominantly predicted greater trust in the leader, whereas identity entrepreneurship primarily predicted greater team identification. Contrary to our hypothesis, identity impresarioship showed a negative relation with trust. In turn, both trust in the leader and team identification were positively associated with organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and negatively with burnout. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of these findings for both the theory and practice of leadership.

• Language: English
• Keywords: entrepreneurship, leadership, working teams, knowledge transfer, dimensions, identity leadership, social identity, team identification, trust
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 302-322
• Numbering: Vol. 29, iss. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-180010
• UDC: 658.3
• ISSN on article: 1368-4302
• DOI: 10.1177/13684302251341818
• COBISS.SI-ID: 246227715
• Publication date in RUL: 27.02.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Group processes & intergroup relations
• Publisher: Sage Publications
• ISSN: 1368-4302
• COBISS.SI-ID: 18364509

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: podjetništvo, vodenje, delovne skupine, prenos znanja