Who makes a good leader? Cooperativeness, optimism and leading-by-example

Arbeitspapier

We examine the characteristics of effective leaders in a simple leader-follower voluntary contributions game. We focus on two factors: the individual's cooperativeness and the individual's beliefs about the cooperativeness of others. We find that groups perform best when led by those who are cooperatively inclined. Partly this reflects a false consensus effect: cooperative leaders are more optimistic than non-cooperators about the cooperativeness of followers. However, cooperative leaders contribute more than non-cooperative leaders even after controlling for optimism. We conclude that differing leader contributions by differing types of leader in large part reflects social motivations

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CeDEx Discussion Paper Series ; No. 2009-19

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Relation of Economics to Social Values ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Group Behavior
• Subject: Führungspersönlichkeit ; Kooperation ; Vertrauen ; Spieltheorie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gächter, Simon ; Nosenzo, Daniele ; Renner, Elke ; Sefton, Martin
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The University of Nottingham, Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics (CeDEx)
• (where): Nottingham
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/49696
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET