When Racial/Ethnic Minorities Emerge as Leaders: The Role of Learning Orientation and Team Minority Composition

Extant research suggests that when teams are composed of both White and racial/ethnic minority members, White individuals are more likely to be granted informal leadership status than racial/ethnic minorities. Given this unfortunate reality, we addressed an underexplored question: when or under what conditions do racial/ethnic minorities emerge as leaders? Using a multilevel approach, we examined individual (i.e., learning goal orientation) and team factors (i.e., team minority composition) as key moderators of the relationship between race/ethnicity and leadership emergence. Guided by insights from the social identity theory of leadership, we predicted racial/ethnic minorities would be more likely to emerge as leaders within teams composed of few minorities when they possess high (as opposed to low) levels of learning goal orientation. We tested our hypotheses with a sample of 80 self-managing teams within the context of an assessment center. Results demonstrated support for the notion that it is critical for racial/ethnic minorities to possess high levels of learning goal orientation when working in predominantly White teams to attain informal leadership status. As such, our findings help clarify the conditions under which racial/ethnic minorities emerge as leaders in self-managing teams.