I-deals, emerging leadership and promotability: a moderated mediation model

Abstract

Companies attempt to identify future leaders within teams. In particular, how leaders emerge informally within these teams and what formal leaders think about these employees remain areas that still require further explanation. In this study, the focus is on how idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) are related to emerging leadership, and if emerging leadership mediates the relationship between i-deals and promotability. Additionally, since the relationship between employees and their managers may influence the emergence of leadership, leader-member exchange (LMX) is included in the model as a moderator. The study was conducted in a centrifugal technologies company operating in Türkiye and involved 145 white-collar employees. The data confirm all of our hypotheses. Both i-deals and emerging leadership predict employees’ promotability, and emerging leadership partially mediates the relationship between i-deals and promotability. Furthermore, high levels of LMX significantly strengthen the relationships between i-deals, emerging leadership, and promotability. The results with respect to i-deals, emergent leadership and promotability are discussed.