Followers are swayed most by leaders who embody the group’s valued traits.

Evidence

According to Hogg and van Knippenberg, people are more likely to be influenced by prototypical group members than nonprototypical members. A prototypical group member embodies the characteristics that members believe to be important to group membership. Leader effectiveness is linked to how strongly the followers identify with the group and how well the leader fits the group characteristics (van Knippenberg & Hogg, 2004). Followers who strongly identify with the group will also accept the organization’s attitudes, values, and goals as their own (de Cremer et al., 2008) and then act accordingly by engaging in behaviors that are in the best interests of the organization (e.g., organizational citizenship, productivity). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1762

Categorization

• QUESTION: This ‘prototypicality’ claim suggests an interesting empirical test: do minority or outsider leaders lose influence even when competent, purely by lacking prototypical traits?
• XREF: connects to: Leaders are accepted only when embodying features shared with followers — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 153; Charismatic dictatorships inverted Weber’s claim that heroic leaders save passive masses. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 14; A charismatic leader can give isolated youth the sense of existing through group power. — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 376 (+2 more)