The Literature Review and Future Prospects of Leadership Emergence

Traditional research of leadership usually argues that a leader can only be served by a single and formally appointed individual. However, with deepening transformation of organizational structure, more and more firms depend on the informal leadership provided by team members, thereby making leadership emergence be focused on. Leadership emergence refers to the process that individuals within a team perceive the leadership demonstrated by other members. Through a systematic literature review, this paper introduces the concept and measurement of leadership emergence, makes clear the theoretical base and routes of the formation of leadership emergence, and clarifies the existing studies. Finally, this paper puts forward the limitations of the existing research and the research directions deserving further study.