Author:

Abstract:

Purpose Since 2000, a new model of leadership has emerged, based on the social identity theorising (after Tajfel & Turner, 1979). This social identity approach to leadership argues that the effectiveness of a leader will depend upon his/her capacity to represent a given group and this has been confirmed in numerous studies (Van Knippenberg & Hogg, 2003). Moreover, three other dimensions of the leader identity have been identified (Haslam, Reicher, & Platow, 2011): identity entrepreneurship (creating a group identity), identity advancement (acting for the group) and identity impresarioship (embedding group identity). The goal of this paper is to test the influence of identity leadership profiles on various outcomes among his/her followers. Methods Over 5,000 participants from more than 20 countries answered a questionnaire composed of the Identity Leadership Inventory (ILI, Steffens et al., 2014), along with measures of team identity, innovation and burnout. The ILI is a 15-item scale which measures the four dimensions of identity leadership. Results The results indicated variations in the outcomes (e.g., burnout) based on the identity leadership profiles. Four-way interactions and simple slopes difference tests showed how the different identity leadership profiles impact team identification, innovation and burnout. Whilst identity entrepreneurship is the main predictor of team identification, identity advancement is the main predictor of burnout. Limitations The cross-sectional design of the study limits the inference of causality. Implications This paper helps to understand which aspect of identity leadership is essential regarding various outcomes. Originality This is the first study investigating the identity leadership profiles.