Every little makes a Mickle: the role of extracurricular activity event in leadership emergence

The current study aims to understand the antecedent of leadership emergence from an event perspective. Drawing on event system theory and leadership literature, we examine the unique role of extracurricular activity event strength in predicting leadership self-efficacy and leadership emergence with the data from 300 undergraduates in China. Our results based on two time-lagged survey studies indicate that extracurricular activity event disruption and criticality are positively (but novelty is negatively) related to leadership self-efficacy, which in turn is positively related to leadership emergence. Moreover, leader position intensifies the effects of extracurricular activity event disruption and criticality (but not novelty) on leadership self-efficacy. The implications of these findings are discussed.