A Relational Identification Theory of Leadership

Abstract This chapter focuses on informal (yet integral) leadership relationships in which organizational members must cooperate to reach organizational goals. For these wide-ranging situations, the authors propose a relational identification theory of leadership. First, they review the extant literature on relational identification to answer three basic questions: (1) what is it? (i.e., definition); (2) what are its outcomes? (i.e., consequences); and (3) how does it develop? (i.e., antecedents). Second, they build on this literature to propose a relational identification-based leadership process in which positive task-focused and positive person-focused leader behaviors engender both interdependence and belonging (respectively)—which, in turn, influence the follower’s relational identification (with the leader) and follower’s cooperative behavior (both task-focused and person-focused). The authors also propose that personalization—both the leader’s and the follower’s—amplifies this mediatory process. Third, they explore future research directions across three areas of inquiry: (1) informal leadership theories; (2) personalization versus prototypicality; and (3) the dark side of a relational identification-based view of leadership.