Page - (000238) - in Knowledge and Networks

233 Discussion Are high self-monitors likely to emerge in actual workplace settings as leaders in the eyes of others? Critics have pointed out that “subjects in laboratory studies… rarely feel accountable to others for the positions they take” (Tetlock, 1992, p. 335) and evidence suggests that laboratory studies may have inflated the relationship between self-monitoring and leadership emergence (Day et al., 2002, p. 394). Our results showed that self-monitoring was significantly related to leadership emer- gence in the workplace. Further, the leadership emergence of high self-monitors was facilitated by earning the trust of those who did not trust each other. Relative to low self-monitors, the high self-monitors were also active in the provision to col- leagues of workplace advice. From these results, we build a picture of the high self- monitoring emergent leader as someone who notices problems and ameliorates them through the provision of advice. The high self-monitoring style of leadership is not, as some have suggested, an epiphenomenon of laboratory experiments, but is recognized by workplace colleagues. Particularly interesting is the possibility that the chameleon-like style of the high self-monitor helps rather than hurts leadership emergence. High self-monitors are likely to segregate their audiences from each other, acting out different and even incompatible roles across social settings (Snyder & Gangestad, 1982; Snyder, Gangestad, & Simpson, 1983). Although critics might characterize such role flexi- bility as detracting from leadership, the alternative possibility, suggested by our results, is that the high self- monitoring, purposively sociable orientation (Ickes & Barnes, 1977) toward quite different social settings can help high self-monitors play a vital role in brokering across social divides. Indeed, high self-monitors (compared to low self-monitors) show leadership in resolving social dilemmas by contributing to the general welfare of others (De Cremer, Snyder, & Dewitte, 2001). Contribution to Theory and Research Whereas prior work has speculated that high self-monitors may be perceived by others to lack leadership integrity because of the variability in their behaviors (Simons, 2002), our work has emphasized that high self-monitoring flexibility may enhance perceptions of leadership by facilitating coordination across social divides. Critics have tended to perceive the high self-monitoring style of leadership as lack- ing authenticity (Ilies, Morgeson, & Nahrgang, 2005) but research has failed to support this proposition (Tate, 2008). Our results show that high self-monitors tend to provide advice to more people than do low self-monitors, and that high self- monitors appear to be particularly well suited to playing the role of broker between parties that do not trust each other. The flexibility of high self-monitors, therefore, expresses itself in terms of centrality in advice networks and the ability to effec- tively broker trust relations to win attributions of leadership. 11 Brokering Trust to Enhance Leadership