The Language of Emergent Leadership Kyle Barron, Jennifer Lien, Gretchen Schroeder, Victoria Schwanda, Ashley Vernon
The Language of Emergent Leadership
Kyle Barron, Jennifer Lien, Gretchen Schroeder, Victoria Schwanda, Ashley Vernon
Motivation• Importance of online collaboration
– Today’s organizations are more complex, dynamic, and global
– Online education is becoming popular– Emphasis on virtual teams (Bell & Kozlowski, 2002)
• F2F to CMC transition– Makes leadership challenging (Bell & Kozlowski, 2002; Cascio & Shurygailo, 2003)
Motivation Method Measures Preliminary Results Next Steps
Leadership Back in the Day• Leadership improves performance (Guzzo &
Salas,1995)
• Traditionally, what makes a leader?– How to establish leadership online (Misiolek & Heckman,
2005)
Motivation Method Measures Preliminary Results Next Steps
Research Questions• How do emergent leaders use language to
establish themselves as leaders in CMC?- How does this use differ from assigned leaders?
• How can we design CMC tools to support emergent leaders?
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• 92 Cornell students- 61 female, 31 male- Ages 17-26 (median age: 20)- Received Susan credit -OR- $10
• 23 Groups- 11 Assigned, 12 Emerging
Participants
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• Murder Mystery Task (Balakrishnan et al., 2008)
• Groups of 4 collaborate via online chat– Makes leadership challenging
• Two randomly assigned conditions- Assigned leader group- Emergent leader group
The study
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• Assigned vs. Emergent leader groups
• Leaders vs. Non-leaders within groups
Independent variables
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Recognizing Leaders• For leaders to be effective, team members
must recognize them as such (Tyran et al., 2003)
• We looked at the leadership ratings of all participants
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Success of emergent leaders• There are many contexts where leaders are
not predetermined
• Looking at Group Consensus and Success rates among Assigned and Emergent conditions can help inform designs
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Language of leadership• LIWC (Pennebaker & Booth, 2001)
• Word Count
• Showing status through language – Use of pronouns (Pennebaker et al., Unpublished Manuscript)
Motivation Method Measures Preliminary Results Next Steps
• H1a: Assigned and emerging leaders will be rated higher than non-leaders
• H1b: Assigned leaders will be rated higher than emerging leaders
• Average Leadership ratings (on a 5 point Likert scale)
Leadership Ratings of Individuals
• H1a: Assigned & emerging leaders will be rated higher than non-leaders
• H1b: Assigned leaders will be rated higher than emerging leaders
Leader Non-LeaderAssigned 4.00 (SD=0.85) 3.53 (SD=0.71)Emerging 3.44 (SD=1.01) 3.51 (SD=0.67)
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p=0.08
p=0.17
• H2a: Assigned leader groups will have a higher group consensus rate
• H2b: Assigned leader groups will have a higher success rate
• Group Consensus and Success rates (success rates among groups that reached consensus)
Group Consensus & Success Rates
• H2a: Assigned leader groups will have a higher group consensus rate
• H2b: Assigned leader groups will have a higher success rate
Group Consensus
Success
Assigned 63.64% 71.43%Emerging 91.67% 63.64%
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p=0.11
• Average word count• H3a: Participants in leader roles will use more words on average than non-leaders
• H3b: Leaders in the emerging condition will use more words on average than leaders in the assigned condition
Word Count
• H3a: Participants in leader roles will use more words on average than non-leaders
• H3b: Leaders in the emerging condition will use more words on average than leaders in the assigned condition
Leader Non-leader TotalAssigned
448.91 (SD=276.96)
407.12 (SD=266.49)
417.57 (SD=269.76)
Emerging
399.75 (SD=142.44)
476.17 (SD=251.30)
456.66 (SD=230.91)
Total 423.26 (SD=218.01)
442.66 (SD=261.08)
437.76 (SD=251.21)
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• H3c: There will be a positive correlation between average individual leader rating and average word count
Word Count vs. Avg Leadership Rating
• H3c: There will be a positive correlation between average individual leader rating and average word count
Motivation Method Measures Preliminary Results Next Steps
• H4a: Leaders will use fewer first-person singular pronouns (“I”) than non-leaders
• Average percentage of words that are first-person singular pronouns
Status: First-person singular pronouns
• H4a: Leaders will use fewer first-person singular pronouns (“I”) than non-leaders
Leader Non-leader TotalAssigned
2.96% (SD=1.93)
1.90% (SD=0.97)
2.16% (SD=1.36)
Emerging
2.63% (SD=1.37)
2.03% (SD=1.11)
2.18% (SD=1.21)
Total 2.79% (SD=1.67)
1.97% (SD=1.05)
2.17% (SD=1.28)
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p=0.007
ChiefSkylar104: I think he went in right after ezequiel broke up the fight
ChiefSkylar104: I definitely don't think it's cedric
DetWhitney834: is there any description of cedric's body type?
DetWhitney834: to see if he's physically capable?
DetMorgan246: I think its Lynwood
ChiefSkylar104: same
• H4b: Leaders will use more first-person plural pronouns (“we”) than non-leaders
• Average percentage of words that are first-person plural pronouns
Status: First-person plural pronouns
• H4a: Leaders will use more first-person plural pronouns (“we”) than non-leaders
Leader Non-leader TotalAssigned
1.11% (SD=0.51)
0.84% (SD=0.76)
0.91% (SD=0.71)
Emerging
0.99% (SD=0.77)
0.83% (SD=0.66)
0.87% (SD=0.69)
Total 1.05% (SD=0.66)
0.83% (SD=0.71)
0.89% (SD=0.70)
Motivation Method Measures Preliminary Results Next Steps
ChiefJoe234: i don't think we can assume that
ChiefJoe234: and he has an alibi as wll
ChiefJoe234: he was with laurence
DetAshley846: also he should have a lot of cuts on his hands if it was him
DetAndy123: I don't either
DetAndy123: okay so maybe to the opportunity
DetAndy123: who's laurence?
DetCasey678: i doubt that he could just kill a man then come back to the bar
• H4c: Leaders will use more second-person pronouns (“you”) than non-leaders
• Average percentage of words that are second-person pronouns
Status: Second-person pronouns
• H4c: Leaders will use more second-person pronouns (“you”) than non-leaders
Leader Non-leader TotalAssigned
0.32% (SD=0.73)
0.13% (SD=0.23)
0.18% (SD=0.42)
Emerging
0.13% (SD=0.19)
0.18% (SD=0.21)
0.17% (SD=0.21)
Total 0.22% (SD=0.53)
0.16% (SD=0.22)
0.17% (SD=0.33)
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ChiefSkylar158: you have to do a little section at a time so they wont reject it
DetWhitney834: yes plz
DetMorgan246: coroners report
DetMorgan246: o my bad i didnt read that we are doing one at a time
ChiefSkylar158: okay, do you want to copy paste it?
DetLee671: pat, you know this from parking camera footage?
DetChris982: didnt you say that the vic died at 1054
DetChris982: then it says the fight happened after that
DetChris982: yes
DetChris982: from 1030 to 11 cedric was walking ariana to her car
DetAlex123: thats all consistent with my informatino too
Next Steps
• Deeper quantitative analysis of data
• Qualitative coding of transcripts
• Design implications
• Testing designs
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Questions?