From Individual Contributor to Leader: A Role Identity Shift Framework for Leader Development Within Innovative Organizations

This paper contributes to the leadership identity development literature by examining role identity shift from individual contributor to leader in organizations that expect and reward innovation. The challenge for new leaders is to shift their role identity from innovative individual contributor to leader and for the organization to provide the support and reward structures to develop leaders of innovation. Degrees of role identity shift range from incremental shift (remaining an individual contributor through technical updating and employee development) through substantial shift (adding elements of leadership to one’s role and identity) to radical shift (complete transformation into becoming a leader in behavior and identity). As part of this approach, we apply the idea of creative destruction to leader development and, consistent with identity literature, argue that the idea of identity destruction is sometimes a legitimate part of leader development. In a process model, we predict the degree of leader role identity shift depends on, and is influenced by, organizational policies and resources. Also, we illustrate how some efforts by organizations to enhance technical innovation and individual development may have the effect of inhibiting leader identity development.