The impact of communication frequency and content on leader emergence: The role of communication medium

The present study (N = 168 participants in 56 groups) examined the ability of communication behaviors, frequency and content, in predicting leader emergence. The present study represents the first known content analysis of communication processes leading to leader emergence that compares this process between face-to-face and computer-mediated groups at multiple levels of analysis. Direct and indirect assessment of communication frequency was another unique feature of this study. For the relationships between leader emergence with both frequency and content the communication medium was not found to act as a moderator. As predicted, greater proportion of remarks and higher ratings on perceived amount of discussion contribution were positively and significantly associated with leader emergence. Also, as expected, the greater proportion of task remarks predicted leader emergence. Additionally, perceived amount of discussion contribution was found to partially mediate the relationships of both proportion of remarks and task remarks with leader emergence. At the group level, there was no significant difference in participation inequality between the two communication mediums and participation inequality did not impact whether a group did or did not have an emergent leader.